In and Out of Time
by wonderbread9
Summary: The future is not written in stone, and anything that we do now, can change the outcome of tomorrow, and it takes a time-traveling Josh to make everyone see that..Amanda/Kyle..Jessi/Kyle..Pls R&R..Kthnxbai!
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** In and Out of Time (1/?)  
**Author:** wonderbread9  
**Rating:** PG-13 - R  
**Characters:** The Cast of Kyle XY, OCs here and there  
**Pairings:** Kyle/Amanda, Kyle/Jessi  
**Warnings:** It's going to get a bit strange...AU-ish, takes place directly after Life Support©, and will include some elements of what I've seen of pictures on . So, there is a spoiler-ish warning for those who have yet to check those out.

**Author's Note:** Took a page from Roswell's book and decided to take a crack at the time travelling theme. To my fellow Kessi-lovers, don't hate me too much. There's a lot of Jessi!angst at the beginning, but it gets better, I SWEAR!!!

**Summary:** _"D'you…"Kyle stopped, started again. "D'you think I should tell her? Tell Amanda the truth?"_

_Nicole paused, thinking, before she met Kyle's gaze sympathetically. "Kyle…I know how you feel about her, and…if you feel that she's strong enough, and that you're ready, then tell her. What do you have to lose?"_

_**8o8o8**_

"_I swear I'll melt if you touch me at all,  
But then I'll ask you to do it again, and again."_

--Angels & Airwaves,_ The Gift_

**S**tepping out of the hospital and into the sunlight of a Seattle spring, Nicole breathed in the scents that came to her: the warm grass, the breeze, the scent of flowers and their perfume wafting across her senses; she was finally free of the cold, sterilized walls of Seattle General and could finally breathe a sigh of relief. He'd been stuck under the doctors' care for little over a week after the accident and kept on close observation after her "miraculous" healing from her injuries. The doctors had wanted to monitor her, just to make sure that nothing was going wrong with her body, but once scan after scan and check up after check up revealed nothing amiss with her body, the baffled doctors had no choice, but release her; with a promise, of course, that she would check back with them if she felt any unusual discomfort. It had been a pretty close call—the accident. Too close, in fact; it left her shaken, even after she had found out that there was nothing wrong with her physically. She had come so close to death, so close to her life's ending, and if it hadn't had been for Kyle…

She turned and glanced back at the young savant in question, watching as he loaded the few bits of luggage that Stephen had brought for her into the trunk of the car; Josh was helping, telling a joke or some such that caused a brief grin to flicker across Kyle's face for a moment and a twinkle to spark in his eye. Despite her injuries, despite the occasional pain that she still felt, it was nice to him smiling, nice to see him happy even if only for a little while. It was nice to see all of her children happy; so much had happened in the Trager household, so many changes that might've broken any other family had only made hers stronger. It was nice to see, a nice reassurance to have, that if anything _had _happened to her, her family would've been able to stick together, would've been able to wrestle through the dark time, leaning on one another.

Even Lori and Jessi were getting along, something she not expected to happen many months down the line, and it brought a brief, but welcome rush of contentment and pride to her being, giving her hope that maybe, just maybe…everything would work out fine.

"Ready to go?" Stephen asked, surprising her from her reverie. She turned to him and the car door that he held open for her, smiled gratefully and nodded.

"More than ready," she admitted, smile still in place. She stepped up to her husband and kissed him 'thanks' before getting into the car and settling in the seat, ready, and more than happy, to return home.

"Alright, everybody," she heard Stephen called to their wayward teenagers. "We ready?" She didn't see their four nods of unison, but soon the car was full of pushing and shoving teenagers, each fighting for leg room to sit and be comfortable for the drive.

"You know your feet are in my way," came Jessi's saucy complaint. Nicole glanced back just in time to see Lori shoot the dark-haired girl a glare of annoyance before shifting and pushing herself into Josh.

"Hey, space much," Josh growled in aggravation and tried to push his sister over. Lori gave a cry of protest and Kyle looked on at the two of them in alarm. Nicole sighed. A mother's job was never done…

"Alright, you three," she chastised, looking back at the still pushing and shoving teens. They stilled their movements and looked at her with equal looks of guilt. "Cool it," she continued in a calming, motherly tone. "We'll be home soon and then you guys'll have your own space again. Sound good?"

The three nodded, and Nicole grinned, turning back to sit straight in her chair, glancing at her husband. He shot her a smile of his own, and whispered, "Welcome back."

Nicole's grin widened and she settled deeper into her seat. She wouldn't have had it any other way…

_8o8o8_

Latnok.

Latnok.

The mysterious organization had been an uncomfortable thorn in his side since Adam had told him about them nearly a year ago, a shadow organization that was more than willing to use any means necessary to get what they wanted out of people, and now…now Kyle had signed away his freedom, and possibly his life, to the devil. He didn't know what that could mean, what they were going to do to him, and telling himself that it had all been for Nicole's benefit, to save the only mother that he'd known, was slowly fading to a pitiful whimper at the back of his mind. The truth was he was scared. He was terrified. Latnok had kidnapped Amanda and had nearly harmed her and her life with their technologies, and now, he was agreeing to help them and who knew what kind of trouble that could mean.

"It was…pretty close, wasn't it?" came the quietly spoken inquiry from behind; Kyle turned with a start. He'd been so wrapped up in his thoughts that he had not expected anyone to come out onto the front porch but he; his usually adept hearing hadn't heard the soft, padding footsteps of Jessi as she approached. He smiled for her benefit, even if the smile didn't reach his eyes. He had so much to think about, so much going on inside, that he didn't think he could deal with anyone else right at that moment; not even Jessi. She came to stand beside him, gave him a small smile before looking out from the front porch to the strange, strange world that lay beyond.

"It _was_ pretty close," Kyle replied and shrugged, letting out a gust of air as he did so. "I don't know what I would've done if I'd lost her."

"You and me both," Jessi admitted quietly. She glanced at him, but he wasn't looking at her. Instead, he trained his ears, strained them just that little bit and listened; gently tapped keys were playing in the distance, an idle tune that he didn't know, but was glad to hear. Amanda was at her piano, probably just idly lingering there, maybe dreaming, maybe just thinking. The thought brought a sad smile to Kyle's face: she wasn't thinking about him; she wasn't playing for him. She was probably imagining what college life would be like, what endless possibilities lay before her, and he wasn't included.

"Kyle?" Jessi called, her tone uncertain. His concentration broken, the sound of Amanda's playing fading, he turned to Jessi, meeting her brown eyes with his deep blue. "What's going to happen with Latnok?"

"I don't know," he answered, his tone as uncertain as hers. "I just don't know. I keep…" he hesitated, and looked deep into her imploring brown eyes, and figured that the only person he had left to talk to about this was Jessi…"I keep trying to tell myself that it was all for Nicole, that going to them was the right thing to do, but…" He stopped, feeling the familiar rush of conflicted emotions wash over him: was he right? Should he have trusted them? Had there been a better way and he'd just missed it? Was he doing the right thing?

"It was the right thing." Her voice was firm. "If you hadn't, Nicole would be dead and…and we'd be alone. You saved her, Kyle. Always remember that."

He nodded, craning his head, wanting to hear, just once more, that comforting sound of keys playing, lightly strummed, notes hanging poised in the air, but there was nothing, only silence, and Kyle's heart felt heavy in his chest. He didn't think he could do this, live this way, be who he was.

"You're thinking about Amanda again," Jessi stated glumly, and Kyle looked at her, shrugging helplessly.

"I think…I think I should tell her," he replied. "Maybe if I did, maybe…Everything would be so much easier."

"For who, Kyle?" she asked, suddenly annoyed. "You? The Tragers? _Precious_ Amanda? You know what Foss said. Dragging her into this, this whole messed up world that we live in, is that really what you want to do to her?"

"Jessi," Kyle pleaded, his eyes swimming with emotions that he just could not express: confusion, hurt, pain. "I just..I just want her to know the truth."

"I'll bet." Jessi pressed her lips into a thin line, shook her head and looked away. It was a while before she could speak, a while before she could look at him with steel in her eyes and lacing every word in her voice. "Fine. Tell her. Drag her down, kicking and screaming. I'll bet she forgives you, and you can live a lie of normalcy, as if you're not better, smarter or greater than anyone else. Go on. Tell her, Kyle. Tell her. Bring her into our crazy, messed up, secret world."

She left in an angry huff, her foot steps heavy against the hardwood floor of the porch, before she walked through the threshold of the front doorway and slammed it with the force of her anger. Kyle could feel the house shake minutely and winced. Great, just great. He'd managed to anger Jessi once again, and he knew—when Jessi got into one of her moods—not even he could pull her out of it. Kyle's shoulders slumped and looked out over the quiet street of the Seattle suburb that he'd called home for nearly three years of his life. It was so still, so silent. Not even the birds were flying or squirrels playing leapfrog with one another on his or the neighbors' lawns.

He wondered how a world such as this, so quiet, so peaceful, could be home to such secrets as his, such lies and deceptions, such trickery. He wished he could wave his hand and make everything make sense, wished he could just fit this world and its jigsaw pieces into such an order so that nothing in his life would ever be chaotic again. But he knew that no matter what he wished, no matter what he wanted, it would always be this mess. He sighed and looked to his right, where Mrs. Bloom was stepping out of her home, a self-satisfied grin spread across her face and…Amanda trailing after. Kyle watched her, watched as Amanda pointedly ignored him and his longing gaze, getting into her mother's car and the two of them driving off. He watched the car as it sped passed his house, willing for just a moment, for Amanda's gaze to fall on him, for her to see him, notice him, see the pain that he was in, that his heart was just as broken as hers had to have been.

But no…

Her gaze stayed resolutely forward, and the dagger that was twisting in Kyle's heart dug just that deeper. His shoulders slumped, his spirits sank even further, and he felt more dejected than he had in a very long time.

_8o8o8_

She had seen him, before she'd even stepped outside into the warm spring air, standing on his front porch; his face creased in deep thought and, in spite of herself, wondered what he was thinking. What could be troubling those impossibly perfect, pale features, creasing them with deep frown lines of worry? Was he thinking about school? His friends? Was he thinking about Jessi? Or, and her heart leapt just slightly in her chest, was he thinking about her?

She watched him from the one window in her bedroom that gave her a vantage point of the Trager's front porch, where she saw Jessi talking to him before storming off angrily, and it gave Amanda a vicious satisfaction before she caught herself and shoved those thoughts and feelings forcefully away. She chastised herself soundly: she couldn't be thinking about him, spying on him and wondering about what was going on with him. The Kyle and Amanda chapter was done. Through. Over. Finished. Finito.

And yet, here she was…thinking about him again and wishing that there was just someway….some way that she could just go over to the Trager's house and…

_Stop_, a voice commanded firmly in her head that sounded oddly like Hilary's. _Just stop. You ended it with him, remember?_

But she couldn't help the longing that overcame her and the memories that haunted her. In her dreams she saw him, his pale skin, his strong hands and arms surrounding her. She felt safe with Kyle, despite it all. Despite everything that happened, she still believed that Kyle still cared for her, still wanted her, still wanted to be with _her_. She couldn't deny the feelings that still stirred in her gut when she saw him and the anger that still possessed her when she saw Jessi anywhere near him. She shook her herself all over, wanting to get rid of the images of Kyle…of Kyle kissing Jessi and the sickening feeling of betrayal that had slammed into her and nearly felled her on the spot.

She had wanted to kill both of them: Kyle for making her believe stupidly in love and that he wasn't like any other guy that she had ever been with, and Jessi for getting something from Kyle that only Amanda thought she deserved. But all she could do was storm out of that house, her hands clenched at her sides in tight, white fists of rage. She'd gone home immediately, not even wanting to slam her emotions out on her piano. No, she went straight to her room and cried. Even, now she hated herself for that weakness of emotion, and the love for Kyle that had still persisted under the wild tumult of her rage.

Even at the recital, when she had felt justifiable fury rushing through her, wanting to possess her and do serious harm to him, she allowed him to touch her, allowed him to just…be Kyle, simple, weird, strange Kyle one last time.

Amanda sighed in frustration, rolling her eyes, and when her mother called her, she was grateful—for once—for providing her with a much needed distraction. And, when she stepped off the front porch of her home, she pointedly ignored Kyle, even though everything in her being was screaming at her to give into her longing and plunge head first into Kyle's arms.

But no, she got into her mother's car, a cage of steel clamping down over her emotions, over the ache that surrounded her heart and choked it. She slammed the car door, slamming it in the face of his yearning, slammed it in the face of the confusing whir of sadness, anger, hurt and love that she felt for the boy that watched her, desperately wanting her to acknowledge his presence.

She couldn't. She wouldn't.

She wouldn't.

She wouldn't.

She—

But when her mother made a left on the main street that crossed hers and Kyle's street, Amanda looked back, her body trembling, her lips quivering and tears wanting to fall.

_8o8o8_

Even though she was home and was supposed to be resting—doctor's orders, came the stern echo of her treating physician's voice in her head—Nicole couldn't help be feel that there was something amiss in her household. Maybe Kyle's extrasensory perceptivity was rubbing off on her or maybe she had just been a psychologist too long and could recognize the undercurrents of a problem that could seriously blow-up in everyone's faces unless someone did something about it.

First there was Jessi, skulking to her room after coming from the front porch, and Nicole could too readily identify the look that curled about the young girl's features. It had something to do with Kyle. It always had something to do with Kyle whenever Jessi got that look on her face: something akin to devastation, but not quite 'end-of-my-world-as-I-know-it' there. She wanted to tend to Jessi first, but she knew that—if Kyle were the source of it—it would be best to talk to him first. Even if he didn't think it, Kyle had a great deal of sway over Jessi's emotions: one kind word or look from him could brighten up the girl's day or even couple of days.

So, Nicole stepped out of the kitchen where she had been drinking her tea and attempting to take it easy, taking her still steaming mug with her and going out to the front porch where—sure enough—Kyle stood with a pensive look on his face that told all the world that this was a young man who held an enormous weight on his shoulders. He turned swiftly at her approach, a defensive look clouding his features before he realized it was her and his face relaxed into a wry smile. And had Kyle's smiles ever gotten wry? Nicole made a mental note of that and sent him a mothering smile before coming to stand next to him and asking, in her best psychologist's voice, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Kyle sighed and looked away. "Not really, but…" He shrugged, trying to shake himself free of some unfathomable trouble that Nicole could only imagine.

"Don't worry, Kyle," she said soothingly. "Just take your time."

He didn't say anything for a moment, just stood beside her, watching the quiet neighborhood around them, his blue eyes focusing and unfocusing as if he were reliving an entire lifetime in that one second.

"It's just…" he struggled. "It's just the accident and Latnok and Jessi and Amanda and just…everything. I don't know…I just don't know how to handle it anymore. I want to tell Amanda the truth, but…I don't want her to…to look at me like I'm some kind of…" He stopped, and turned to her helplessly. "I just…And if I tell Amanda, and she forgives me, then Jessi's going to be…And now, Latnok wants me to…I just…"

Nicole immediately put her mug down on the surface of the porch railing and pulled Kyle into the tightest, most reassuring hug she had in her arsenal. His arms circled around him and she could feel the desperation radiating off of him in waves. So calm and collected, usually so in charge of himself and any situation around him, Kyle was now truly revealing the scared, unsure teenager that he truly was. It was then that Nicole felt a motherly sense of protection and anger come over her: it wasn't fair that Kyle had to have the weight of the world fall on his shoulders. It wasn't fair that everyone had to depend on him so much, when he had the right to just grow up and be normal.

"It's okay, it's okay," she said, running a calming hand through his dark hair as his body trembled and sobs shook him. "Just let it all out. Just let it all go. Kyle, you're only a teenage boy. You're not supposed to figure everything out. You're not supposed to know everything or what to say or do to make everything alright. You'll wear yourself thin."

"But…" he started, and she pulled back, meeting his teary gaze with her own.

"No," she said, firmly. "Don't do this to yourself. Don't put this kind of pressure on yourself, alright?"

He nodded, and she couldn't help but think that he looked like such a lost little boy at that moment, his gaze so trusting and his emotions shown so freely. She had dealt with so many cases and so many troubled children and teens that his willingness to talk to her was refreshing.

"One day at a time, okay?"

He smiled at her and nodded again.

She smiled at him, wiping his tears, before she picked up her mug. "Feeling better?"

"A little," he admitted gratefully, his smile going a bit wider. She breathed a relieved sigh.

"Good. Now," she tapped him gently on the nose. "I'm going to go check on Jessi."

The happy look immediately dropped from his face and he looked towards the direction of the house and the stairs that led up to the second floor.

"She's pretty mad at me," he acknowledged, a troubled look clouding his features. Nicole smiled for his benefit.

"Don't you worry about her," she said taking a sip of her tea. "I'll take care of it. You just stay out here and relax."

She turned on her heel to go inside and deal with the other wayward teenager that had come under roof, but stopped when Kyle called her name. She turned back to him and raised her eyebrows.

"D'you…"Kyle stopped, started again. "D'you think I should tell her? Tell Amanda the truth?"

Nicole paused, thinking, before she met Kyle's gaze sympathetically. "Kyle…I know how you feel about her, and…if you feel that she's strong enough, and that you're ready, then tell her. What do you have to lose?"

He nodded, and she smiled on last time before turning on her heel and searching for Jessi. She didn't have to search for long and found her seated with her knees to her chest, in Kyle's tub. She stepped carefully in the room and Jessi glanced at her before looking down in her lap and saying in a muffled tone, "I hurt him again, didn't I?"

Nicole winced, hating the defeated sound to Jessi's voice. She had to remember that this girl—this young woman—had been through so much and had to continuously live with the memories of the things that she had done and the things that had been done to her; the way Jessi knew was to lash out in anger. It would be a long time before she learned to turn that instinctual reaction to any negative stimuli to something positive. Nicole stepped deeper into Kyle's and Josh's room, setting her mug down on Josh's dresser and sitting herself next Jessi, carefully avoiding her still healing stitches.

"Jessi, Kyle just has a lot to deal with," Nicole replied in a placating tone. Jessi shrugged helplessly and turned to the older woman, tears shining in her eyes.

"That's all I ever seem to do though," she protested, her voice as helpless as she looked and frustrated. "I just hurt him, and keep hurting him, and I don't mean to. I just…" The dark-haired teen stopped abruptly and looked away. It was times like these that Nicole was thankful for being a trained psychologist. If she weren't, if she were someone else, she knew she wouldn't know how to approach this situation. But she did, she was a trained professional, and she knew that all she had to do was wait.

And, like magic, Jessi continued. Haltingly at first, but getting stronger with each passing moment: "It's just…Sarah left me and, and my father…he abandoned me. Emily lied to me and everyone hates me, treats me like I'm this ticking time bomb that's just going to explode…or, or this animal that needs to be caged. I'm trying, Nicole. I'm trying so hard, but everything…it's all so confusing and sometimes things just don't fall into place and everything's this jigsaw, and Kyle's the only thing that makes sense. He's the only one…And I just…I keep hurting him, and I don't know how to just stop. I just…I want to stop."

And for the second time that day, Nicole felt that mothering instinct take over. Both Kyle and Jessi were two extraordinary beings, forced into the crazy and hectic life that neither of them wanted, and Nicole just wished that someway, somehow she could make their hurting stop, make it all simple and uncomplicated.

"I'm so sorry, Jessi." She pulled the girl into a tight hug over the tub's rim, and the girl clung to her like she was the only life line the teen had to this world. "If you feel like you're hurting him, then all I can say is just…just try to understand things from his point of view. You're both so much alike, but you're also so vastly different. You're both these two extraordinary human beings with so much to give to the world, but we seem to forget sometimes that you're just kids, that you're just trying to figure things out. And this is one of those things, one of those tough, tough things that you've got to wade through. But understand, I'm here. I'm here for the both of you and if I can help it—" she pulled back and cupped Jessi's face tenderly in her hands—"I won't be going anywhere any time soon."

Jessi nodded and smiled a shaky smile at the older woman. "Thanks. Thanks, Nicole."

"Any time, kiddo," Nicole replied playfully. "Just…try to be careful with one another. Try to see things from each other's points of view. Try to understand Kyle bears a weight on his shoulders and that you do too, and that…you're not supposed to have everything line up in a perfect order. Sometimes, life is a messy, crappy place and we've got to clean it up."

"Okay," Jessi replied. "I get it. I-I get it. I'll try not to be so…I…I know what I have to do."

A frown creased Nicole's brow for a split second. "And what's that?"

"See things from his point of view," Jessi answered, looking away. "Be…Be sympathetic."

Nicole smiled, even though something was firing off warning bells in her mind. Her smile wavered. "Jessi?"

"Yes, Nicole." Jessi looked up, a set expression echoing in her eyes. Nicole looked at her squarely.

"Just…don't do anything…brash."

Jessi smiled again, but this time it lacked any warmth and appeared sad around the edges. "Don't worry.

"I know what I have to do."

_8o8o8_

She had found him that night, holed up in his room while Josh and Andy were downstairs playing up a storm on G4, Stephen and Nicole in the kitchen talking quickly and Lori commandeering the house phone in her bedroom to get some 'Mark and Lori alone time'. The look that she saw creasing his features was one of longing and need, and deep in her heart—in the place, the secret place that she let no one touch; let no one see or caress—Jessi felt a pang, a sharp thrust of heartache cut through the wall that she had built up around herself. Kyle was seated at his bedroom window, eyes glued to the warmly lit window that sat directly across from his and permitted him, at one time, long ago, a glimpse of the one girl that he had cared for the moment he had seen her. Jessi breathed and looked away, angry at herself for feeling any sense of sympathy or remorse. After all, it wasn't like the separation of Kyle and Amanda was her concern. She wanted to believe that maybe, just maybe, given a little time, he'd forget, he'd forget the gentle way she smiled at him, the way she would touch him and just see, see that she was here, that she could touch him and caress him too.

But seeing him now, looking at him, watching the slump of his shoulders and hearing the way his heart beat faster at even the hint of Amanda's shadow crossing her bedroom window, her mind went back to earlier that day and the conversation she had with Nicole. She wasn't here for her own selfish reasons. Throughout this entire time, she had allowed her own selfishness to override any other emotion that she had felt. Nicole had told her to see things from his point of view, to try and understand the world from the way he perceived it. And while she could admit that she couldn't quite angle her mind to that feat, she could at least understand: for now, for now, she could give in and give him something that he craved, that he desperately wanted even though he didn't _need_ it.

Not like the way she needed him, not like how she needed him to make everything make sense, not like how she needed him to be there, to see her and be the only one who had looked deep into the secret places in her mind and never hate her for the darkness he found there. She stood in the door way, her eyes glued to every movement that he made, every shift of his body, her wanting, needing, to reach out, to caress him and feel his arms wrap around her, threatening to envelope her, ensnare her in its poisonous embrace.

"Kyle," Jessi called out, and walked into the room as he turned to look at her, unshed tears in his eyes. She wanted to cry herself, could feel her heart breaking in the cave of her chest, knowing that what she was going to say and what she was going to do was going to hurt for a very, very long time. His blue eyes met her brown and she smiled sadly, taking his hand in hers and tugging him into a standing position. He frowned at her, but when he went to ask her what she was doing, she shushed him quiet and pulled him to follow her.

It was all she could do to keep herself from breaking down right then and there, the steady beat of his heart beat kept her going, the way his hand circled around hers in a cocoon of warmth; she savored all of this, every small, minutely fine detail, locking it in her memory for always. She knew that no one would ever love her, not the way Kyle loved Amanda, but she could take this, she could take this tiny trust that he gave her, the way his breathing quickened and slowed, the way the muscles played along his arm as she held him tightly and pulled him outside, down the steps of the Trager home and along that short, short distance to Amanda Bloom's.

Her feet were heavy, her body trembling. She looked back and saw Kyle watching the house with a sense of awe and wonder. It hurt to see that look on his face. They stopped at the stoop of Amanda's front steps and Jessi swallowed painfully, staring up at him, and wishing fleetingly for something, anything to hear her pain, to see her heartbreak and show her that the world wasn't really this cruel, cruel place.

"Go," Jessi said quietly. Kyle, startled, looked at her, hope shining from his blue, blue eyes. She didn't meet his gaze, just dropped her eyes down and stared hard at the ground. She released his hand after a final squeeze, letting hers fall to her side and shifted away from him.

"Jessi," he started. She cut him off.

"Just go." She swallowed thickly and pressed her lips into a hard thin line, lest he see them trembling. He lingered beside her for a few seconds more.

"Thank you," he whispered quietly before bounding up the steps. The shard that had been driven into Jessi's heart since this whole mess had started was plunged deeper and all she could do was breathe, feeling the tears want to fall. She turned on her heel and, with one swift surge of power, broke into a run. She ran away from Amanda Bloom's house, away from the welcoming warmth of the Trager's household and, more importantly, away from Kyle and his blue, blue eyes that seared her soul. She ran, feeling the Seattle night air slapping her face, pulling her hair hard behind her. The stars above were cold witnesses to her fleeting form as it darted in and out of the glow of street lamps, passed parked cars and out, out somewhere, somewhere lost in the suburbs and city that she wanted so desperately to call home.

She didn't know where she was going, and didn't care.

Anywhere was better than here.

8o8o8

His hand—his whole body even—was trembling as he raised it to knock on Amanda's door. Emotions rushed through him—hope, fear, joy, terror—and memories streamed across his vision—hands, lips, the ethereal sound of a piano's gentle playing; the first time he was kissed; the first time he kissed her. All he could think, all he could feel, was the low hum of his body and blazing hot rush of adrenaline surging through his limps. His breathing was ragged, his senses trained on any and every movement that was made in the house before him, from the creak of the flood boards to the sound of feet coming down the steps—his heart beat sped up faster—and walking to the door. A blurry face peeked out at him from stucco glass window beside the door—blonde hair, blue eyes and lips the color of ripened cherries—and it came open to permit one very annoyed Amanda Bloom.

But that didn't deter him, that didn't stop him. He was going to tell her, he was going to tell her everything. He could feel the rush of exhilaration wash through him and he smiled at her and she was caught off guard. She frowned at him, pursed her lips and looked back to where he was sure her mother was seated on the couch, probably reading, probably drinking her fair share of wine. He couldn't tell and didn't care at that moment.

"What are you doing here, Kyle?" she asked quietly, meeting his gaze with hers. "I have nothing left to say to you. I have nothing—"

"But I have something to say to you," he cut in firmly before she could start an angry tirade and slam the door in his face. He heard her heart beat pick up, saw her face flush and wanted so desperately to touch her, to cradle her face in his hands and kiss her until she was breathless and dumb with passion. But he couldn't, he had to tell her, he had to tell the truth. Everything he wanted to say was burning at the back of his throat, was torturing him like hot lava that needed to be released.

"Amanda," he began, breathing deep and steeling himself for any reaction that she may have to what he was going to say. "All this time I've been hiding, I've been trying to keep you safe from what I am and who I am…but with all my secrets, I-I drove you away and that was never my intention…I just wanted to keep you safe, to keep you away from all of this."

"Kyle, what are you talking about?" she asked, her face creased in puzzlement. "What does this have to do with what happened?"

He breathed deep, swallowed, and met her questioning gaze head on. "Amanda…it's time I told you the truth."

_8o8o8_

**AFTERWORD:** Yays! Okay, I would suggest to any Kylanda/Kymanda lovers to stop reading right here. After this, the story is going to shift…now, don't get me wrong…um…it's still going to have its Kylanda/Kymanda moments. HOWEVER, inevitably, the story is going to end in KESSI. SO, if you'd like your happy-ending to remain as such, I suggest you keep this segment of the story and be happy.

My dear, dear Kessi-lovers…please, continue on…it's only gonna go **UP** from here. Adieu!


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** In and Out of Time (2/?)  
**Author:** wonderbread9  
**Rating:** PG-13 - R  
**Characters:** The Cast of Kyle XY, OCs here and there  
**Pairings:** Kyle/Amanda, Kyle/Jessi  
**Warnings:** It's going to get a bit strange...AU-ish, takes place directly after Life Support©, and will include some elements of what I've seen of pictures on ABCfamilymedia dot net. So, there is a spoiler-ish warning for those who have yet to check those out.  
**Disclaimer: **I don't KXY because if I did it'd have a season 4.

**Author's Note:** Took a page from Roswell's book and decided to take a crack at the time travelling theme. To my fellow Kessi-lovers, don't hate me too much. There's a lot of Jessi!angst at the beginning, but it gets better, I SWEAR!!! 3

**Summary:** _What happened in the next few minutes could be, Jessi reasoned later, entirely blamed on Nicole for never teaching her that old adage: _'be careful what you wish for.'

_**8o8o8**_

The air was cool on her face, the stars were silent in their places and Jessi was glad that she had found the loneliest, most secluded spot above the city of Seattle. She was so high up she was able to look out over the concrete jungle and watch the human beings that scurried to and fro, in their cars or walking along the streets in the dead of night, hurrying to get home before the midnight hour set in and the crazies like her came out to play. Her rear end felt cold against her concrete perch, but she ignored the discomfort. What did it matter anyway? Even now, she was sure, Kyle and Amanda were probably wrapped in each other's sickeningly sweet arms and she was, once again, alone with no one here to wrap her in their arms or to tell her that everything would be okay.

Nothing in her life had ever been right or good or an event to celebrate, so why had she thought—even for a second—that this would be? That Kyle would turn to her on Amanda's stoop, look at her with his deep blue eyes and tell her that she was a fool for leading him here, that she was a fool for thinking that he wanted Amanda and that she was a fool for ever believing that he would never want her at all. How could she allow herself such hopeful thoughts? She was born into chaos, born into violence and that, it seemed, was all she was ever going to be good for.

She shifted slightly, breathing deep, and stretching her senses out, stretching herself, pushing herself to feel the shift and change in the air around her, to detect the minute rumbling of the earth below her, to feel everything around her because this was as much a part of anything as she was ever going to be. She leaned back, looking up at the billions and billions of stars that she honed her vision to see. The stars watched her back and she wished desperately for someone, anyone, out there stronger and more powerful than she to exist, to listen to her and hear her silent pleas: _just make my life make sense…just make everything make sense. Please. Please. Please. Please. Just…please?_

What happened in the next few minutes could be, Jessi reasoned later, entirely blamed on Nicole for never teaching her that old adage: _'be careful what you wish for.'_

Her skin, already strained by her mind to feel the movement of the air around her, detected the noticeable drop in temperature almost immediately and that, she registered quite suddenly, was very strange. Jessi's eyes dropped from their pensive gazing at the cold pinpricks of star light above and zeroed in on the dark world around her. Her delicate features creased into a puzzled frown. She remembered studying Seattle's geography in one of her many science classes, and in her mind's eye she could still recall in minute detail the passage concerning the city's Mediterranean-like weather. She knew that at this time of year the air was supposed to have an average temperature of sixty-five degrees. So why then had it suddenly dropped about fifteen degrees in a matter of seconds?

There was no breeze, nothing to stir the world around her, and nothing to account for the sudden drop in temperature. Jessi stood, heart suddenly thundering in her chest like a herd of wild horses, and at the edges of her senses, right down to the very core of her being, instinct was screaming, _'something's coming…'_

Her muscles tensed and adrenaline surged through her, preparing her for…for whatever it was that was causing warning bells to ring in a frenzy in her mind. She swallowed and turned this way and that, but there was nothing and no one and the earth beneath her suddenly began to rumble, a quiet quake at first and then the trees around her were shivering in their places before the leaves started to shake and the once absent breeze swirled around her, picking up in speed, furious like a cyclone. She cried out in alarm, very really fear pumping through her as surely as her adrenaline, and she fell to the ground on all fours with a muffled, terrified _'oomph'_ like someone much larger and stronger than her had pushed her down.

The air crackled.

The hairs along her arms and hands stood on end and gooseflesh broke out along her skin.

Sparks of electricity danced before her eyes like perverted fairy lights, and no matter how hard she tried Jessi could not stand, could not push against the invisible force that held her, trapped against the earth. All she could do was tremble, apprehension curling through her, making her feel every bit like the scared teenager that she hated to be. Was this Latnok? Were they punishing her for her threat against Cassidy? She hadn't wanted Latnok to hurt Kyle, or the Tragers, and in her mind—even now—that was all that mattered: Kyle. Keeping Kyle safe.

What the hell was going on? Her advanced brain could not process this, could not handle this confusing contradiction of nature around her, and she did the only thing that came to her that was as natural as breathing. In that moment, her mind captured and held onto the thought of Kyle: his dark, black hair, his pale, pale skin and the gentle smiles that he flashed on anyone that came under his favor. In her mind, she saw him, hand poised to knock on a door, saw the door come open and saw the girl with blonde hair and blue eyes answer, but before they could make a move, before he could reach out and grab the girl's hand, Jessi screamed, put all of her fear and terror into one desperate thought: _KYLE!!!!!_

After all, he had connected to her mind when he and Nicole and Josh were in trouble. It _had_ to work both ways. He had to hear her, had to know that she was in trouble. He was the only one who could get to her fast enough. He was the only one, _the only one_, who could save her.

_Kyle, please. Please, hear me_, she begged in her mind, and shut her eyes as the electrical charge in the air began to build and build—her own body was responding to it, her blood was rushing faster, her heart was pumping like she'd run a marathon race. Her muscles trembled, her body quaked and the world around her began to scream, a keening wail that filled the air, the dissonance filling her ears. Lightning crackled from the earth, but there were no storm clouds above, no opposite charge from the atmosphere. Jessi shut her eyes against the burning white lights as they flashed and jumped across her vision. The keening wail grew louder and louder still; she felt like her eardrums were going to burst.

Her heart was racing. Her muscles, her sinew, her very cells were on fire. She could feel the air sizzling around her with so much activity, so much energy. She could feel the temperature in air rising, burning her skin. She couldn't breathe.

She wanted to scream.

She wanted to cry.

She wanted to be home.

The world around her screamed one last time, and then everything—the trees, the earth and the strange white lightning—fell silent. Everything stopped, stilled as if nothing had been amiss in the world only a few short seconds ago. Jessi pried her eyes open and looked around cautiously. The earth was no longer quaking. The trees stood as silent in their places as they had always done. A gentle breeze stirred her hair.

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

Was it Latnok? Or was it the foolish imaginations of one very depressed girl? Jessi was able to pull herself up from the ground and stood on shaky legs, swallowed deeply and looked around once more. There was no lightning crackling in the air around her, and the breeze that caressed her was cool.

What just—? What just happened? Somewhere in the back of her mind, where logic still reigned, she knew that what just happened could not have been real. There was nothing to explain it, nothing to account for the weirdness that had just taken place. And yet, she knew she wasn't crazy, knew that what she had just heard and felt was as tangible as the clothes that covered her back. So, what then? What perversion of Mother Nature had just taken place?

It was then that Jessi heard a noise above her head, a strange sound that disrupted her confused and still very frightened thoughts.

She looked up.

Her eyes widened.

She screamed.

_**8o8o8**_

He wanted to tell Amanda everything.

He wanted to lay out everything that he was and everything that had ever happened and everything that he had ever done before her wide blue eyes and let her _see _him, see what he was and why he had done the things he had done. But, as he sat beside her on her house's front step, he could not bring himself to begin. There was just so much, so many feelings welling up inside of him, so many conflicting emotions that were clambering to the forefront of his mind to be heard: fear, terror, hope. He didn't know where to start, he didn't know how to open his mouth and just _tell her_ the truth.

She had a right to know, didn't she? She had been dragged into his crazy and hectic existence, and had never once asked or questioned him about why he did the strange things that he did, why he didn't have a past and, most importantly, why he didn't have a belly button. He shouldn't have kept his secrets from her since the beginning, when all of this crazy mess had started. He should've let her know the danger that she was in. He should've prepared her for—

"Kyle," came Amanda's puzzled voice, breaking into his frenetic thoughts. He started, glancing at her with fear shining brightly in his blue eyes. "What's going on? You told me you were going to tell me the truth. About everything."

He nodded, not answering her. Instead he looked away again, breathing deep. Anxiety twisted in his gut. His mind was filled with an endless parade of what ifs: what if she rejected him? What if she forgave him? What if…what if…what if… He didn't want to lose her, but he didn't want her to look at him any differently than she had before. He wanted to see love shining in her blue eyes and showering him with all the devotion he felt for her.

"Kyle," she started, her voice tinged with annoyance.

"Amanda," he cut in, sucking in a deep breath of air. It should have fortified him. After all, oxygen was the stuffs of life. So, why, why did he feel like all of the oxygen had, quite suddenly, been sucked out of the world around him? And why, why did he have this sudden headache threatening to overtake him? It had started at the base of his skull and had moved, steadily, in the last few minutes, up his cranium and was teetering on becoming a full blown migraine that would bowl him over any second. He squinted, breathed and rubbed his suddenly sweaty hands against the fabric of his jeans.

"I just…" he stopped, started again. "This is just…It's hard for me to…I want to tell you everything."

He met her gaze then, trying to smile, but knew, somehow, that it must've looked like a grimace cutting across his pale features. The look she shot him was a worried one and when he reached out to touch her, to pull her hand into his and caress her soft, pink skin, she pulled back, retreated and wrapped her arms around herself instead.

"Maybe I should just go," Amanda said quietly, beginning to stand. Panic took over any logical process that would've usually governed Kyle's thoughts and he reached out, groping blindly, and cried, "No!"

Amanda jumped away from him, her eyes wide with concern and fear. "Kyle? Kyle, what's wrong with you?"

"Amanda, I—"

It was then that he felt it, the headache that had been threatening to undue him for the last few minutes, abruptly tore through his mind with the force of a freight train and Kyle stumbled on the front step in his blind reach for Amanda, stumbled and collapsed. He vaguely heard Amanda's cry of alarm, but it was soon drowned out underneath the onslaught of pain that ripped through his body, his nerve endings screaming with agony. Something was thrusting itself, like a battering ram, up through the panicked flurry of his thoughts, clawing its way up and up and up, until it broke into his conscious mind and all he could see, all he could hear, was the terrified scream: _KYLE!!!_ And Jessi's face floating up from his subconscious, her brown eyes wide and her mouth parted in a look of absolute horror.

"JESSI!" Kyle was violently thrown back into the cool Seattle night air, as if he had been plunged under water and held there for a very long time and was only now being allowed to breathe. He sucked in large gulps of air as his eyes watered and he looked around himself in confusion. A very terrified Amanda crouched beside him, holding his hand, and if it had been any other time, Kyle might've savored the feel of her hand in his. But he wasn't, he couldn't. He was filled instead with a growing sense of panic and fear.

"Something's happened," he gasped, still at a loss for air. "Jessi…Something's wrong. I-I have to—"

Amanda blinked at him, tearing her hand from his, suddenly very, very angry.

"Of course," Amanda growled. "Of course…It's always Jessi, isn't it?"

He tried to protest, but his protests fell on deaf ears. She shook her head at him, silencing him with a glare. Her lips pressed into a very, very thin line.

"If you leave me now to go to her," she hissed, venom lacing every word, "don't you dare come back, Kyle. Don't you dare come back here. I won't want to see you or talk to you _ever_ again."

"But Amanda…" He winced as pressure built in his skull once more, threatening to undue him once again. He gasped; feeling like the very air was being knocked out of his lungs. The whimper of a helpless voice filled him, _Kyle, please. Please, hear me_.

"Amanda, just…" He opened eyes he had not realized he'd closed, only to see Amanda retreating from his kneeling, trembling figure, tears shining in her eyes.

"I can't do this," she whispered, swallowing thickly. "I can't do this anymore, Kyle."

He could hear the way her heart beat quickened and slowed, quickened and slowed, could almost detect the way her blood rushed to and fro throughout her veins. He knew almost intimately the inner workings of her body, the way everything fit together to form the whole, the being, the energy and the light that he had come to know as Amanda Bloom, but in all of his understanding of her physical being, he could—could not for the life of him—understand a way to reach her, a way to show her that everything that he had ever been, ever was or ever would be had not come into existence until he had come to know her. He could not help her see or understand that ever thing that he had ever done had been because of her, for her and to keep her safe. And now she was pulling away from him, withdrawing that light that he had come to love so much, the emotions that he had desperately hoped for and longed for for so long; she was pulling away, retreating into the safety and comfort of her normal and orderly world, where a college scholarship awaited her and the thousand thousand possibilities of an uncomplicated life lay before her.

He wanted so desperately to shut his mind off from the pain that was reverberating through his limps, cut off the agony that seared his very cells, tore through his very organs, and join her in that normal, simple existence. But he couldn't, and through blurry eyes filled with pain, he watched Amanda leave him, watched her open her front door and look back one last time, before shutting it, and him, out of her life forever.

And all he could do was stagger to his feet, and turn to the direction that he knew, without a doubt, the plea of help had come from. And all he could do was summon up every ounce of strength that existed in his body to propel himself forward, to run, run to the last person on the planet that would never leave him, who would never abandon him.

He had to get to Jessi.

He had to find her.

He had to save her.

_**8o8o8**_

**AFTERWORD:** See? I told you I was going to make it Kessi. Did I do a good job, d'you think? |C|O|N|S|T|R|U|C|T|I|V|E|C|R|I|T|I|C|I|S|M|… myANTIdrug. Anyway, it's shorter than last chapter because I didn't have much time to get to it, but I promise next chapter will be longer.

So, you guys know the drill: read, review! Bye, lovies!


	3. Chapter 3

**Title:** In and Out of Time (1/?)  
**Author:** wonderbread9  
**Rating:** PG-13 - R  
**Characters:** The Cast of Kyle XY, OCs here and there  
**Pairings:** Kyle/Amanda, Kyle/Jessi  
**Warnings:** It's going to get a bit strange...AU-ish, takes place directly after Life Support©, and will include some elements of what I've seen of pictures on . So, there is a spoiler-ish warning for those who have yet to check those out.  
**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kyle XY ©, Kyle, Jessi or any other part of the show. If I did, we'd a season four with nothing BUT Kessi *sigh*

**Author's Note:** Took a page from Roswell's book and decided to take a crack at the time travelling theme. To my fellow Kessi-lovers, don't hate me too much. There's a lot of Jessi!angst at the beginning, but it gets better, I SWEAR!!! 3

**Summary:** _He looked up a head and he saw them: brown eyes, wide with fear, framed by a face that had yet to be worn by the devastation of war, a face that was smooth and young without the lines of worry and the frowns of frustration. He saw her, and knew, finally: I made it._

_**8o8o8**_

III.

He knew that he was playing with fire—they all were. He knew that the gamble he was making could blow up royally in all of their faces and that everything—every single thing—that they had ever worked for, slaved over, bled for and died for could end if anything he tried or any mistake he made caused a chain reaction that could make the situation that he was leaving behind even worse than it already was. But he had no choice, and as he watched the world that he had come to know, love and hate turn to fire around him, Joshua Trager knew that no matter what he did he could not fail.

The time stream was like a Technicolor nightmare of swirling blues, hot pinks and blazing greens as he felt something jerk, yank and pull painfully on his navel and he was thrown backwards, backwards to a time that he could hardly remember, and dreaded more than he had ever dreaded anything in his life. He looked back, looked back to where the future loomed in the time tunnel, the vision he saw frayed around the edges, and saw _her _brown eyes twinkling at him, even though a raging hellfire was blazing around _her_, catching fire to _her_ hair, turning _her_ beautiful pale skin to ash. He blinked, and she was gone, disappeared forward in time while he was slung back like a sling shot, a human cannonball defying all laws of physics and logic; it figured that he, the most skeptical of everyone, would be the one who was picked especially for this mission.

He remembered that day, so long ago, when he was called into debriefing, not even settled in his room on base yet and still carrying on his person the funk of the passed mission that had lasted two weeks and had kept him from the comfort of the underground bunker. The commander—a sprite of a woman with features that looked more suited to a sitting room somewhere along an upscale Parisian boulevard—nailed everyone gathered with a sharp glare from her ice blue eyes. Her lips had been set in a thin, grim line and, for the first time in a long time, Joshua had felt the first stirrings of anxiety twist his gut into knots. The commander, a Charlotte Deveaux, held in her arms a stack of paperwork that Joshua was sure was the cause of his anxiety; he knew by the way she clutched it, that what ever was held there could very well steer the course of the future, and that, by no means, bode well in his mind.

"I have assembled you all here because the group of you are the best, the brightest and the strongest soldiers that the resistance has and have been fighting on the front lines since the start of this war," she began and set the stack of paperwork down on the debriefing table. "And because of your experiences, you _must _know that this war…is hopeless. The opposition is too strong, too powerful and we're losing soldiers and fighters everyday and losing territory. Even now, our resources are dwindling and soon we'll have nothing."

The woman's face, if at all possible, became even more grim and her ice blue eyes took on a look sadness around the edges. She breathed and handed the first page of the stack of paperwork to Joshua. He took it, looked it over and frowned. There was a diagram on the page, drawn in the shape of a whirlpool. He frowned and handed it off to the man that sat beside him, a stern-faced gentleman with a jagged scar that ran diagonal along his face from his right temple to the left side of his jaw. Commander Deveaux passed him another sheet from her stack, and another and another, all just as confusing as the first. Joshua couldn't comprehend what he was seeing: numbers? Diagrams? Notes jotted down in a chicken-scratch handwriting that he couldn't understand?

"Pardon me, ma'am," Joshua started, and the commander fixed him with her hard blue eyes. "But what is all this?"

"It's—"

"Perhaps, I can explain it better, commander," came the softly spoken request from Joshua's left and his brown eyes snapped to where it had come from and be held her.

She wore a white lab coat, clean despite the fact that water rations had been cut back again in the past month. Her brown eyes fell on his. She smiled and looked away, meeting the commander's no nonsense gaze with a determined look of her own.

"Of course, Ms. Hollander," came the commander's curt reply, and the small woman stepped out of the way and allowed her, Jessi Hollander, leeway into the room and full reign of the floor. Joshua's heart skipped a beat and he swallowed tickly as Jessi nodded and stepped further into room. Everyone was silent, all eyes trained on the brown-haired, brown-eyed woman that had done more for the war effort than any twenty, trained soldiers combined.

"What you see before you, ladies and gentlemen," she began with a pointed look at all of them, "is hope. Hope for the future. Hope for the present. And hope for the past. In the old days," Jessi began a slow circuit about the room, starting at the farthest edge of the debriefing table and traveling around it, picking up the individual pages of notes and research before setting them down again and continuing on, "scientists claimed that time moved in a linear fashion, and that nothing and no one could ever break through it or ever travel along its pathways." She stopped beside Joshua and he felt a shiver run up and down his spine and sweat break out along the skin of his brow. She smiled at him and butterflies fluttered maniacally in his stomach. "But I've discovered a way," she continued in a gentle whisper. Joshua swallowed thickly. "I've discovered a way to go back and change…everything."

There was an assortment of protests that reverberated around the room, but Joshua heard none of it. His attention was fixed on the woman that stood before him, smiling; her brown eyes boring into his, boring into his soul. He breathed, but every breath felt like a chore. His heart thumped faster, blood rushed like a flood through his veins.

"I've discovered," Jessi said louder over the din; everyone immediately fell silent, "how to go back and make right what went horribly wrong. I've discovered how to stop the Destroyer."

The rest of the meeting was a blur, the rest of what had been spoken of were vague snippets of here or there conversations passing through his thoughts. All he remembered mostly from that day, weeks and weeks ago, were her eyes, brown lasers boring into him, turning him into mush on the spot. It hadn't always been that way; he hadn't always seen her in that light, and he knew that even with what he had grown to feel for her, her depth of emotion for him was only on the surface; he knew that he could never be _**HIM**_, and would never—no matter how long he tried or how hard—reach into those secret depths of hers and wade through the darkness and the shadows that existed.

Mere seconds were passing, he knew, but in this strange world of colors shooting passed his vision at light speed, it felt like the seconds were crawling and when tried to focus on the lights, pictures blazed passed his curious gaze. The images stung. They cut deep. He saw his life flash before his eyes: everything backwards like some cosmic hand had pressed rewind on the VCR of his mortal existence. The first time he had ever shot a gun. The first time he had ever gotten shit-faced drunk. The first time he had ever gotten his heart broken and the first time he had ever killed a man. All there, all replayed for him like some sick cosmic joke. It made him smirk in mirthless humor.

Jessi had said that when he entered the time stream he wouldn't see a thing. She had predicted that the minute he stepped through the thin veil that was reality and time and space, he would blink and in those mere seconds he would be at his destination. But as he looked out and saw his life replaying before him—the good times and the bad—a sudden thought struck him: it was nice to know that even Jessi could be wrong sometimes. The thought was a bitter one, but Joshua blinked again, more seconds passed and he saw up ahead the vision of star lights and the sky line of a Seattle that had not yet been decimated by the ravages of war.

He saw up a head earth with the first sprigs of green grass dusting a ground that had been, only a few short weeks ago, covered in a thick layer of snow. He saw the gentle glow of a street light and the vague sounds of insects singing. Fourteen years propelled into the past. Fourteen years and he could only vaguely remember that he'd been dating Andy at this time, and that life—for the most part—had been simple.

He looked up a head and he saw them: brown eyes, wide with fear, framed by a face that had yet to be worn by the devastation of war, a face that was smooth and young without the lines of worry and the frowns of frustration. He saw her, and knew, finally:

_I made it._

_**8o8o8**_

Jessi screamed as the pillar of light fell from the sky, traveling faster and faster and faster to where she stood, frozen in fear and a sick fascination, staring up at an impossible perversion of nature. Light didn't do things like that, and the world didn't react the way it had only moments before with a keening wail ripping through the atmosphere and the force of a whirlwind gale. Nothing scientifically could explain any of this, and even though Jessi's mind groped around for answers, she knew that she would find none. All she could do was watch as the pillar descended and wonder which god of this messed up universe that she found herself in had she managed to piss off now.

The earth began to rumble again underneath her feet at the light's descent, the trees began to shiver in their places and the wind began to stir like a dog being called by its unholy master. It was then that Jessi's feet allowed her to move and at that last second, when disaster seemed imminent and her life would surely have flash before her eyes, Jessi dodged out of the way just in time, landing on the ground in a jarring roll before staggering to her feet and watching, her heart thundering loudly in her ears and her breath coming to her in ragged gasps, as the pillar of light slammed into the earth, lightning cackling around its edges and the figure of a man standing, peaceably in the center.

Jessi's mouth parted in shock.

No, no, most certainly not. Her mind was moving faster and faster, traveling at light speed, trying to take in all that she was seeing and arrange it in such a way that logic could prevail and her universe would not be turned on its rear. But nothing could account for this. Nothing could explain this, no matter how much her mind tried to reason it out. There was just no way possible for light to exist in such a concentrated form and to cause these types of changes to the world around her and for a man—a literal human being—to be able to exist within it without being burned to a crisp.

In spite of herself, Jessi's feet edged her forward, avoiding the active forks of lightning that licked the air, and reached her hand out to touch…

It wasn't hot. Not like how the atmosphere had been before the pillar had arrived. There was no heat radiating from it all. Her eyes widened in fascination and she licked her lips, reaching her hand even further out. She just wanted to touch…

It was then that the man turned. His brown eyes widened and his mouth parted in a shout.

A tongue of lightning shot from the pillar with such speed that Jessi had no time to dodge and all she could do was look on in horror as it sped towards her, faster and faster, a jagged, white blazing light that would surely be her doom.

It drew closer.

Blinded her.

Jessi felt heat then pain as the tongue of lightning whipped across her skin. Her nerve endings screamed agony. Her body blazed with fire. It hurt so much that she couldn't cry out, the sound stuck in her throat. She was lifted up, up, up—an impossible height off the ground—and tossed like a rag doll into a tree.

Her head cracked against the wood.

She heard the man shout her name.

She wanted to ask what the hell had just happened, but her angry question came out as a whimper of pain. Her teeth were clenched, her jaw locked and her hands were balled into tight white fists. Her mind was working, fighting through the throes of agony that threatened to overtake her. She had to fight through this. She had to.

What if this was Latnok's doing? What if this was some kind of new invention that they had decided to test out on her? She wasn't entirely sure about the organization and how far advanced its technologies were, but if this was something that they had cooked up, then she had to pull herself together, shake off the pain that she was feeling and fight them. They could hurt Kyle. They could hurt the Tragers. She didn't want to lose the only family that was slowly beginning to welcome her into their fold; she'd before die she ever lost that.

And so, with a laborious breath, Jessi dragged herself to her feet, leaning on the tree for support and raising her hand to the man that stepped out of the slowly diminishing pillar of light. He looked vaguely familiar, like maybe she had seen him from somewhere before, but she didn't want to let that distract her. She went deep into her mind, where synapses fired and electrical impulses danced along the neural pathways, deep into the place where she could feel connected to the gravitational pull of the world around her, where she could see and count every single electron and proton that crashed and flew apart from each other in the small microcosm of the atomic world, and attempted to change the polarity in the world around her.

It was difficult and when she looked up the man cocked his head to the side, grinned at her with a mouth that looked like it had not smiled in a very, very long time and touched something on his wrist. He seemed to be wearing a watch, but it was nothing like any watch that Jessi had ever seen. No matter; he'd be dealt with soon enough. She turned her body's own polarity, her body's own gravitational force to the world outside, manipulating every piece and part of her down to the very last cell, forcing it out, at the man, in a wall of energy that should've knocked him over and out cold.

But it didn't.

Nothing happened, and when she tried again, he only grinned wider and approached her weakened form on feet that barely made a sound along the grass strewn earth.

"Don't worry, Jessi," he said, reaching a hand out to touch her. "I'm not going to hurt you."

She pressed herself closer to the tree that she was leaning on, forcing away the sharp jolt of pain that still reverberated through her and frowned at him. "Who-who are you? What do you want?"

"I—"

"Get away from her!"

The man looked up in surprise. A familiar shiver rushed up and down Jessi's body, like someone had dipped her body in warm, soothing water and a calm stole over her mind that she had grown so accustomed to feeling that she had stopped thinking anything of it. But now, now she was glad to feel it, glad to feel the essence and presence of Kyle as he stepped out of a thick outgrowth of bushes, chest heaving and face flushed. His blue eyes blazed with anger.

In the next few seconds, everything moved so fast that Jessi had only had a split second to react, adrenaline surging through her already battered, bruised and fatigued body, and forcing her to get up and to act before her entire world came crashing down around her ears: the man turned, his face transforming from that of the tenderness and concern that he had shown her only seconds before, pulling back in a snarl of anger and a hatred so deep that it blazed in his eyes and she was sure had consumed his soul; he flicked his wrist and from the sleeve of his shirt, came a gun; Kyle shouted her name; the man raised his weapon and Kyle raised his hand to stop him.

"Destroyer!" the man spat in anger and loathing.

"Kyle!" Jessi screamed, and pushed herself up from the ground.

The man's hand squeezed the trigger, and Jessi slammed into him with all her might as a shot rang out and Kyle went down. She hit the ground with such force that the wind was knocked out of her, but the man was up again and moving. Cocking his gun again and aiming. But this time Kyle was ready. Before the man could shoot, Kyle had it, ripped from the man's hand, and poised, floating, in the night air. The man looked up then snapped his gaze to glare at Kyle and growl before he turned—Jessi looked up and met the man's razor sharp gaze.

He grabbed her hand, pressed a button on his watch, and the two of them disappeared.

_**8o8o8**_

They were gone.

There one moment, and then—in the blink of an eye—Jessi and the strange man were gone.

Kyle breathed, heart still hammering against the confines of his chest, body still shaking from the rush of adrenaline that coursed through his blood like hot lava. He strained his senses, casting them out like a net, casting them so far and so wide, listening to every sound, from woodland creatures to the distance rush of a lonely car passing along empty Seattle streets.

Nothing.

No one.

He stood upright, walked to where Jessi and the man had been. Kneeled. Pressed his hand to earth. It was still warm where her body had lay. His nose twitched and picked up the faint scent of her before a gentle breeze blew it away and carried it farther than his outstretched senses could detect.

He swallowed thickly.

His hand trembled against the earth.

He breathed.

Jessi was gone.

Jessi was…

A frown creased his features. His normally smiling, grinning, smirking mouth pressed into a thin line. His blue eyes blazed in the darkness. He looked up at the star lights that had born silent witness to what had just transpired.

Jessi was gone.

He couldn't feel her presence, the comforting warmth that stole over him when he knew she was near. He couldn't detect her anywhere, not anywhere close.

Was this Latnok? Were they punishing him? Did they take her to ensure that he would follow through with their plans? Kyle stood.

He breathed again.

Felt anger surge through him. Felt raw fury tear through him with the force of a gale wind.

He had already lost so much tonight. He had already been taken through enough emotional upheavals to last him a lifetime. He had been pushed and shoved and manipulated, he had been attacked, his family attacked, Amanda attacked, and now this…

Now Jessi…

Kyle's entire body began to tremble with the whirlwind of emotions that rushed through him. He swallowed thickly again.

He was going to find her.

He was going to get Jessi back.

**_8o8o8_**

**AFTERWORD:** Okay, so not quite as long, but I wanted to leave it at that…lmao! Okay, so's…I'm going to be away from the computer for the weekend, but DO expect an update on Monday! Okay, thanks, lovies! Bu-bye!!!


	4. Chapter 4

**Title:** In and Out of Time (4/?)  
**Author:** wonderbread9  
**Rating:** PG-13 - R  
**Characters:** The Cast of Kyle XY, OCs here and there  
**Pairings:** Kyle/Amanda, Kyle/Jessi, implied Jessi/Josh (you'll get it soon enough)  
**Warnings:** The story is, from here on out, an AU (Alternate Universe). The themes may get a bit darker as time progresses, but hopefully not by too much. I'm trying to curb this with a realistic standpoint on a, yet as determined, unrealistic show. Bare with me a bit.  
**Disclaimer: **Welcome to my little funpark, where I own none of the characters or themes expressed in Kyle XY, but do borrow them every once and a while when I'm bored.

**Author's Note:** Okay…so, you'll probably find out answers in this chapter about Kyle. This particular story isn't going to be thousands of pages long, but it does set the stage for a much longer piece that I really want to get started working on after this.

**Summary:** _A pained expression crossed his face before he wiped it away immediately and swallowed. "You may not know it yet, Jess, but you're going to save the world."_

IV.

That night, Josh dreamed.

Now, there was nothing unusual about the start of the dream; it began like any other: Andy was approaching him in some sequined, skimpy outfit with a fire blazing in her hooded, bedroom eyes and he was grinning from ear to ear because he knew what was coming next. He felt his body stir in anticipation, watched as her hair fell over her shoulders in a cascade of blazing red hues, veiling his vision of her desire-ridden eyes. Her hands touched his ankles, gently, gently and trailed up his legs, massaging and caressing in languid strokes that made him shiver with want and desire. His eyes fell shut and the grin remained plastered on his face in satisfaction.

He loved these dreams, loved the unbridled passion that his girlfriend displayed in his nighttime fantasies that she would never display in the real world, no matter how daring, creative and uncompromising Andy could be. There were just some things that he didn't even think that she would think were normal enough to engage in so all he had, really, were his dreams. Blurry around the edges always and sometimes misty like those cheesy sci-fi horror flicks that he loved so much, he would always be position on a bed in some exotic locale: India, Hawai'i or Asia; it didn't matter. Andy would always be there and her voice, usually so harsh and brutal during the day with her quips and snarky witticism, would be dropped an octave, dropped to a seductive whisper that did more than a few interesting things to his hormonally driven body.

He felt the bed beside him shift, felt the comfortable weight of a feminine form near, the heat radiating from her smooth skin. He reached out, eyes still closed and touched her, a gentle caress over her warm skin, hearing her slight gasp and her breathing quicken in answering anticipation. His grin widened, her pulled her close and smelled the tangy scent of citrus shampoo and the equally intoxicating smell of the skin lotion of the same brand. Something in his mind echoed, disrupting his dream sequence momentarily, that Andy never wore anything like citrus; she was more of a kiwi-strawberry kind of gal: bitter, but sweet all wrapped in one delectable package.

But Josh pushed that voice away, breathed into the scent of her, pulled her close and crushed her ample chest against him. Her breath caught again, and his grin fell as he landed kiss after kiss along her smooth shoulder, pale like milk crystal and just as fragile…if only she would let him in. There was moonlight above them and the scenery had changed drastically. Gone were the palm trees that hung low in his window and the jungle sounds that had come vaguely to his ears at the start of it all. Hard, cold earth was rough against his naked skin and he could feel the rough scratch of five o'clock shadow along his brow when he brushed it playfully against her chest.

She giggled; it did not sound like Andy.

As the drama unfolded, Josh felt himself pull back and shush her quiet, but she only giggled at him again, an impish sound that he never thought he would hear coming from such a stoic woman.

Wait…woman?

But he couldn't stop himself. Clouds passed over the face of the moon, shielding her face from him, but somewhere deep inside, he knew who it was that lay on her back beneath him, looking up at him with eyes that set him on fire. The world around them was that of a forest, the last bit of greenery left in a Seattle that was—even as they lay together, caressed each other and explored each other's bodies—was being destroyed in a ground assault. But the sounds of cannons firing and guns of war ripping through the bodies of innocent soldiers didn't pierce the canopy of the wood, and here…He could pretend for one second that his life wasn't going to hell and that she was all that he had to cling to, that she was all that was left of a world he wanted to desperately to return.

Her hand came up, cupped his face and returned his attention back to the love making at hand. She needed this, even if she didn't need him, and if it stung to high heaven when she called out a name that was other than his, he didn't say a word. Just moved with her, breathed in her scent, mapped out everything about her that he possibly could with his hands wandering over the curves and contours of her body.

"Don't worry," she whispered, in a voice that sounded so soft, so alluring. "We'll figure something out."

"We will?" he asked, dream still fuzzy around the edges, a voice inside of him telling him that this was wrong, wrong, so very, very wrong. She nodded, smiled at him and he smiled in turn.

"Okay, Jessi."

It was then that Josh sat up in his bed, breathing hard and ragged, his body feeling like it was on fire. Early morning sunlight slanted into the venetian blinds of his window and he looked around, immediately confused and bewildered. Where was he? What was going on? Why—?

When his mind finally caught up with him, and reminded him that he was in bed and was going to be late for school, Josh groaned, plopped back down on the sweat soaked sheets, flinging a hand over his eyes.

Jessi. He had dreamed about Jessi. That was just…too weird. What the hell was he thinking? He was supposed to be dreaming about Andy, his—hello!—girlfriend. Not about the weird freaky, science experiment that was taking up residence in his mother's old office.

And speaking of science experiments…

Josh sat up immediately again and looked around. It was empty. Kyle was nowhere to be seen. Josh rose from his bed, temporarily pushing aside the disturbing—but still very, very arousing image of a very adult Jessi and a very adult him engaging in…—dreams that suddenly decided to take up residence in his head and disrupt his normal sleep patterns, and left his room, seeking out the wayward teen that had come into their lives only three short years ago.

"Kyle!" he called loudly as he walked down the hall, passing Lori's room. Her door came open immediately, emitting his very annoyed, very un-caffeinated sister.

"Geez, shouting much," she growled, shuffling in her pajamas passed him and down the stairs to make herself a cup of coffee in the kitchen. "C'mon, Josh, don't start being aggravating now. It's way too early in the morning."

He made a face at her before following her down the stairs.

"It's not like mom and dad aren't already awa—" he began and stopped immediately when he saw his sister frozen on the bottom step, staring into the living room with a look of shock.

"What's going on?" he asked, stepping passed her and peering into the living room himself. There he saw Kyle, seated on the couch in a hunched over position, staring off into space. He stepped further into the room, a frown creasing his features as he approached his brother, hand outstretched.

"Kyle?" he called, but the other teen did not stir at his approach, did not move or shift from his position. Josh swallowed, feeling a wave of unease wash over him and coil his stomach into knots. Apparently, Lori felt the same and the two Trager children glanced at each other before Lori mouthed, 'I'm going to go get mom.' And dashed off immediately. Josh wanted to roll his eyes and glare at her retreating back. Great, just great. He didn't do touchy-feely emotions or things like that. Not unless it was with Andy—or_ Jessi_, a snide voice snickered in the back of his mind that sounded oddly like Declan's.

He brushed it away and touched Kyle's shoulder gently with his still outstretched hand. Kyle started, turned and the look that Josh saw in his brother's eyes would've sent him reeling and rushing off to find his mom and dad had Lori not gone off to find them herself. A pained look haunted the deep pockets of Kyle's normally expressive and emotive blue eyes and dark bags dragged his eyes down at the corners; there was such an emptiness in their depths that Josh was sure that if he stared too hard and for too long, he would get lost in the sadness that he found there and never, ever find his way out again. He wondered worriedly what it was that could seriously depress the usually so cheerful, optimistic Kyle; what could possibly have devastated him so much that he would sink into this state?

And then, he figured he knew: Amanda.

Josh plastered on his best sympathetic smile and crouched down beside Kyle, hand still gripping his brother's shoulder in as reassuring a touch as he could manage. He swallowed.

"Hey, buddy," he started, trying for a friendly tone. "Are you okay?" He paused, not wanting to skirt the deadly waters where any subject of Amanda Bloom immediately drove Kyle deeper into sadness. He steeled himself and asked, "Is…Are you…Is it Amanda?"

The pained look that crossed Kyle's face made Josh think he hit the nail on the head. He breathed a sigh of relief. This he could handle, anything else…anything like Latnok or weird conspiracies or anything WAY out there like that…well…

"Look, Kyle," Josh began, "everything's going to be okay, you know? Maybe you and Amanda just weren't right for each other…Or, maybe, just maybe, somewhere down the line the two of you will get back together and make superhuman, hybrid babies or something…But, you know, you gotta give this time—"

"This doesn't concern Amanda," Kyle cut in softly, his eyes shifting away from Josh's. The other boy frowned in puzzlement. Well, if it didn't deal with Amanda then who…

Realization dawned on him, and could he help that a snake of something hot burned in his stomach when he thought of brown eyes staring up at him with eyes hooded with lust? He breathed a shuddering breath that Kyle didn't notice and said, "Jessi."

The pain flared in Kyle's eyes anew.

"What happened?" came the urgent sound of Stephen's voice as he and Nicole came quickly down the stairs, Lori in tow. Josh stood immediately to give his mother and father room, but watched Kyle, watched every move that he made and every shift in his expression. Kyle's eyes fell on Nicole's kind face first and then Stephen's before his eyes welled up with tears and they poured down his cheeks. His lips trembled and he hastily wiped the tears away.

"It's Jessi," Kyle began, stopped and breathed a trembling breath. He met all of their gazes with his sorrowful blues, "she's gone."

_**8o8o8**_

It only took the Trager's a few hours to assemble, dressed fully, and Nicole immediately manning the phones, dialing the local police. Stephen and Josh had immediately taken off to investigate the place where Kyle had indicated that Jessi had disappeared, and despite his protests to wanting to go out and help, Lori had been left with the charge of taking care of her adopted brother. He sat on the couch, in the same position that she and Josh had found him in, playing with his fingers and twiddling his thumbs, face creased in a troubled frown; she wondered what was going on in his head.

Jessi was gone. That's what he said, and his explanation for her disappearance was strange, even for Kyle: that some man had come and waved his magic wand or whatever and she and he both disappeared. What? Things like that just never happened. People didn't just up and vanish into thin air. It was impossible. She glanced over at Kyle and sighed.

Then again, both Kyle and Jessi were impossibilities to begin with. So, then…why was this out of the realm of possibility at all? Lori wanted to hit her head against something in frustration. She had come to believe, that even though Kyle and Jessi were weird oddities that certainly had changed her view of the way the world worked, they most certainly had not transformed her viewpoint of the world in such a way that she believed pigs could fly and the ocean would suddenly produce talking fish. It was still as crappy as it had been, it just had the existence of two extraordinary people within it.

But now…

Now…

Lori sighed and turned to Kyle, saying, "I'm going to go find mom." She stood and was about to seek out her mother, when a thought occurred to her and she turned back to her brother and said firmly, "Stay here, Kyle."

He didn't answer, just remained seated, face still pursed in that troubled frown. She sighed again, turned on her heel and sought out her mother. She found Nicole in the kitchen, talking to the police on the phone, trying yet again to explain who exactly it was that they were looking for and why. Her face was flushed in irritation and anger and she looked like she was about ready to slam the phone back into its holder in frustration. She held up a shushing finger to Lori, who waited patiently while her mother finished her conversation with the police deputy and hung up the phone with a calm that Lori was very sure her mother did not feel.

"Yes, Lori," her mother said evenly, and had it been any other day and her mother'd used that tone with her, Lori might've taken offense. But now wasn't the time or the place.

"Anything?" Lori asked with an anxiousness that she was surprised that she could feel. Her mother sighed in frustration and shook her head.

"Nothing," Nicole admitted, gritting her teeth. "How's Kyle?"

Lori shrugged, helplessly, shaking her head. "No change. He just sits there, you know? Frowning. I don't know what to do."

Nicole nodded herself and flashed her daughter a reassuring smile. "I'll talk to him. See if there's anything else he can give us to go on." She started out of the kitchen, tossing over her shoulder: "Man the phones. If anything comes up—"

"I'll call you immediately," Lori finished, walking over to and grabbing the cordless phone from the wall. She held it in her hand and wrapped herself in a protective hug, going straight to the front door, opening it and walking out into the cool air of a spring morning. She stepped onto the front porch, glad to be out of the house and looked around. There wasn't much activity on the street, but when was there ever? Just a man walking his dog, birds singing in the trees and the mailman down the street carrying on his monotonous task of giving people their bills. The sun was shining, clouds drifted across the sky's face and Lori couldn't understand—could quite wrap her head around—why nothing had stopped, why nothing had just stopped dead and frozen in its tracks the moment Jessi had disappeared.

Life shouldn't have been going on as normal. The world shouldn't still be turning on its axis. The man across the street should not be walking his dogs, the mailman should be pausing her car and bowing his head in respect: Jessi was gone. Jessi was taken, and no one seemed to understand that. No one seemed to see that something was suddenly missing in the Trager household: a snarky quip here or a sulking comment made there. Nothing, not even a shadow of her haunted the place, save Lori's memories and the dawning fear that she had growing in the pit of her stomach: what if they never found her? What if this were Latnok and its evil schemes? What if this were MadaCorp?

She hadn't realized how important Jessi had become—they all hadn't—until suddenly they were faced with the terrifying prospect of her not being there at all. She could only imagine how Kyle must've been feeling about all of this. Here he was faced with the daunting prospect of being alone again. She knew that he cared about her and her family and knew that he loved them with all of his heart, but she also knew that—when Kyle had discovered Jessi's existence—a weight had been lifted off of him and a much lighter emotion had come over him: he'd finally found someone who could share the weight of the world with him, he didn't have to be alone and baring the brunt of everyone else's problems all on his own.

Lori swallowed, clutched the phone tightly. She hoped, prayed, that nothing had happened to Jessi and that Kyle wouldn't left alone again. She didn't want that for him; he was already devastated over Amanda, would fate be so harsh as to take Jessi from him as well?

Lori sighed, her shoulders slumping in despair.

_Just let Jessi be alright. Just let her be okay._

8o8o8

Everything hurt. From the smallest cells in her body to the very skin that stretched over her muscles and bones, Jessi could count every single pain center in her mind that was reverberating in agony, could tell anyone who was willing to hear, why her body was reacting in such a way: _the human body is made up of thousands and thousands of cells_, her voice echoed in her mind in a clinically detached tone, _and at any given time said cells are constantly active, constantly moving, so that a feat—such as teleportation—could never be humanly possible unless all variables of cell activity were taken into account. _Human bodies were not meant to teleport and yet this man had done the impossible and was suffering no ill effects from it. If she had been in a better position, Jessi would've demanded how he had done it, but instead, she lay on the cot that the man had scrounged for and whimpered even as he crouched down beside her on the bed, his expression unreadable and he dabbing her forehead with a cool wet cloth with a gentleness that she had not expected from someone who clearly had to be apart of Latnok.

She swallowed, her throat raw, and shifted, trying to get away. He grabbed her, gently, gently and pushed back down on the cot, his brown eyes as razor sharp as they had been when he first brought her to this place, where it was. She knew she was in a warehouse, could hear the way the wind whistled distantly through the empty rafters of a high-vaulted ceiling. She could smell rust and age and a musty odor permeating the space and she when she looked up with pain-filled eyes, she saw water stains marring the concrete walls of the room around her, the bulletin board to the far side of the room and the sunken in remains of what had once been a desk. Ah, so an office then.

Her gaze immediately snapped to the man as he approached with a canteen of water in his hand. She could smell the H2O and despite her pain, fished her senses out to detect if there were any poison or foreign substance sloshing around in the metal container that could possibly do her harm. When she was sure that there was none, she took a quick sip, just enough to soothe her throbbing throat, all the while glaring up at the man with the wariness of a cat.

"Don't worry," he said softly, his voice a low whisper, "I'm not going to hurt you, Jessi. It's gonna be okay."

She pulled back immediately and spat the water at him. He pulled back immediately and cursed when the water hit his shoe. He glared at her, nostrils flaring and growled, "Whether you believe me or not, I'm _not _going to hurt you, Jessi."

She growled at him, her voice coming out grating even to her ears, "Then why did you kidnap me? Who are you?"

The man rotated his neck in irritation and sighed, shaking his head. "You're not ready for that. Not until you get stronger."

She growled again, and he smirked. "You always did have that temper on you. I forgot about it, and it didn't show up nearly as much in the war." A pained expression crossed his face before he wiped it away immediately and swallowed. "You may not know it yet, Jess, but you're going to save the world."

This gave her pause and she frowned at him, struggling to sit up on her hunches. He immediately sprang to her, hands outstretched to push her down again, but the glare she shot him stopped his movement cold. He watched her warily, but dropped his arms to his sides.

"Who are you?" she asked firmly.

"I told you," he started, but Jessi cut him off.

"I am strong enough," she hissed angrily. "I'm strong enough. I'm strong enough to—"

"You can't do anything," he replied, steel lacing every word. "I will tell you this much: there's a dampening field that's surrounding this room. You can't use your powers here, trust me. And, you want to know what's really ironic?" He smirked mirthlessly. "You made it. So, sit back—"he went to her and forced her down on the bed again—" and relax. Heal up. We got a lot to talk about later."

He walked away from her, to the other side of the room, but before Jessi begrudgingly complied to his wishes, she stated, stubbornly, "You called him 'Destroyer'."

"What?" the man asked, puzzled. Jessi fixed him with a brown-eyed glare that she saw made him visibly shiver.

"Kyle," she admitted, with a little hesitation. "You called him 'Destroyer'. Why?"

The man looked uncomfortable.

"Later," he promised. "Later…I'll tell you everything."

That didn't satisfy Jessi in the least, but she could do nothing about it for now. All she could do was lay down and settle on the cot. She shut her eyes against the harsh, stark sunlight that streamed in through the small cracks in the wall of her temporary prison and gather up all the reserve strength that she had. She tested out the man's claims about there being a "dampening field" surrounding the room that they were in, pushing passed the pain to seek out knowledge of where every single cell was in her body and command them all to do as her powerful mind bid. But nothing happened. She could not summon up the will to force her cells to rapidly travel to every aching muscle in her system. Nothing worked, and for a moment, very real fear ensnared Jessi in its clutches.

If this man could easily take her down, then what about Kyle? What did he have planned for Kyle? She had to better, had to get stronger because nothing and no one was ever going to hurt Kyle, not if she could help it. So, Jessi settled down in her sleep, angry at how very mortal she felt, but biding her time nonetheless.

Soon, very soon, she'd get her answers.

Soon.

**_8o8o8_**

It was even more disconcerting dealing with her past self then the future self that he had come to care about. Joshua watched as Jessi finally listened to him and settled on the cot, finally going to sleep. He picked up the faint sounds of her soft breathing and went over to check on her, just to be sure. She was asleep, thank god. He didn't know what he would do if he had to peer into those intense brown eyes again, sharp lasers that pierced that very depths of his soul without knowing that she did. He'd almost slipped, almost told her everything when she had demanded it. It was a wonder that her voice had power over him, even after her young age.

He didn't remember it ever doing things to him. He didn't remember him wanting to lay all of his troubles at her feet and letting her dissect him in that clinical way of hers, logically telling him every solution that he needed to hear. He was sure that she could do it even now, that she possessed that kind of discerning eye that he had fallen so deeply in love with. Joshua swallowed, stood and paced on agitated feet.

He needed to watch himself. He couldn't get sloppy. The entire mission was riding on what he did, how he proceeded and what events in the past that he influenced. He had to be precise. He had to make sure that whatever that had went wrong, never repeated itself…or, at least, never went wrong in the first place.

He turned, sat down in the rattling chair that he had procured from another office within the warehouse aside from this one and watched the sleeping teen across from him. Her hair shone in the light that slanted in through the cracked walls of the office. Her face looked so serene in her slumber. There was no blemish save a slight bruise that was blossoming along her jaw line and if this were any other time—say, fourteen years into the future—he would've crossed the room right now and caressed that cheek, kissed her awake and apologized for his gruff behavior. But he couldn't, wouldn't.

If he were at all successful in what he was trying to do here that future wouldn't exist. He would never get the chance to touch her, to be showered with her affections such as it was. He wouldn't get to know what it felt like to see her naked and in all of her glory, to hear her laugh, to see her smile or her eyes twinkle when they fell on him. He would never…

Stop it, Joshua, came the hard voice of Declan from a future long, long gone by. Just stop it and man up. You know what you're here for.

And he did, even though he didn't want to be the one to do the job. He had to stop the Destroyer. He had to him—Kyle—from decimating everything. Even now he cringed at saying his former adopted brother's name. It had caused so much fear and loathing and hatred and pain that most in the resistance had taken to just calling him 'Destroyer'. No one had to attach emotional significance to that title save antipathy and anger. No one had to remember that he had, at one time, been a kind, vibrant boy who had looked upon all that came into his presence with innocence and open affection.

But those memories of the Destroyer were dead and gone, buried under years and years and years of anger and hate and the ugly beast of revenge clawing its way up Joshua's body every time he was a broadcast or a newspaper bearing the face of someone he had trusted so implicitly at one time. How stupid he had been, and how foolish to think that the Destroyer would always remain the steadfast brother that he could depend on.

His eyes fell on Jessi once again.

No matter. He would change the course of history no matter what the cost, no matter what he had to do, and if Jessi wouldn't—or couldn't—help him…then, he'd do the only thing that was left: he'd kill him; he'd kill Kyle.

He'd kill Kyle dead.

**_8o8o8_**

**Afterward:** Okay, no answers as of yet as to why Kyle is what he is. I just couldn't figure out how to put in this particular chapter without making it all wiggy and what not. So, yeah...um...answers will be revealed soon enough. Oh man, I have such a TWIST for you guys once this story is over with and I get started on part two. ...is excited...


	5. Chapter 5

**Title:** In and Out of Time (5/?)  
**Author:** wonderbread9  
**Rating:** PG-13 - R  
**Characters:** The Cast of Kyle XY, OCs here and there  
**Pairings:** Kyle/Amanda, Kyle/Jessi  
**Disclaimer: **I don't KXY because if I did it'd have a season 4.

**Author's Note:** Sorry, everyone! So, sorry! I hope you guys didn't think I abandoned this baby, did you? I was just out cold with the flu and then my boyfriend caught the flu then my mom and my little AND older brothers caught the flu and then my dad and my boss and…yeah, that baby was going around like _WILDFIRE_. I blame my bf's dog. Anyway, here be chapter five! Woo-ha!

**Summary:** _"If you want to save the world," Jessi replied, her voice softer, "then let me go."_

_Joshua breathed. "I can't do that. I can't—"_

"_Then for all you know," she cut in, "the future's going to be the same."_

_**8o8o8**_

It was a quiet drive to the place that Jessi had been…_kidnapped_, and Josh didn't even want to think of the 'k'-word or what it could possibly mean for him, his family and Kyle. After all, Jessi was just as much of a superior being as Kyle, so…if she could get caught, what did that mean for Kyle? Could that mean that one day Kyle would be out walking and then, all of a sudden, just up and disappear? He'd already come to accept the strange dark-haired, blue-eyed science experiment into his life and called him his brother, he didn't want to have to go through losing Kyle again. He didn't think he or his family could handle that.

But then, what of Jessi? Yeah, she was weird, but not unalike Kyle had been upon his first few days out of the pod. He had been awkward and strange and socially inept and even though it was annoying to have to deal with someone that just didn't understand the social etiquette that existed in the Trager household again, it would be weird to not have someone there to descramble the porn channel signal for him; after all, Kyle already knew it was wrong, but Jessi…he figured he still had a few bribes left in her to get him what he wanted. And, as much as he hated to admit it, Jessi was starting to grow on him too.

Don't forget about you dream, came a snide voice in the back of Josh's head. He gave a mental shake and tried to push away the sudden memories that washed over him: Jessi's pale skin washed in moonlight, her dark eyes staring at up at him and her lips twisted in a lustful smile. He cleared his throat uncomfortably and sat up straighter in his seat. He glanced at his father, but Stephen's mind and gaze were directed straight ahead, around the winding, twisting road that Kyle had told their father and Josh that he had taken the night before to get to Jessi.

Josh turned, and stared straight ahead too, all thoughts of Jessi or his dreams or Jessi in his dreams (_weird_) banished with the returning weight of why they were traveling this road in the first place. He didn't know how they were going to help the other dark-haired teen, especially since Kyle had told them, in broken sentences, _how_ Jessi had been kidnapped.

Vanished, he'd said. Like a puff of smoke. Or well, not with the same wonder and mystique of a magician's trick. More like the absolute terror of something stranger than Kyle, or Kyle's birth, disrupting the already crazy existence that Kyle, Jessi and the Tragers were thrust into. The man had grabbed her by the wrist and then, all of a sudden, they were gone and there was nothing to indicate that two very real, very alive people had been in that spot only moments before. It was…disconcerting to say the least, and it left Josh wondering exactly what he and Stephen were supposed to accomplish by going to the spot.

They weren't going to find some clue to help them so…what was the point? If the guy had taken her the way Kyle had described then wouldn't it have been better for Kyle to come along? Josh glanced over at his father and noticed, for the first time, the hard set to his father's jaw and the way the man's eyes were intensely fixed on the road as if that were the only thing that he could do with himself. Josh swallowed. Okay, so, maybe his family wasn't taking this the best that they could. He did remember seeing Lori glance worriedly at the grandfather clock in the den, as if staring at it could somehow hasten the time that it would take for Jessi to return home.

Even his mom, the usual rock of the Trager family had been pushed to her boiling point much quicker than any bickering or antics that the Trager children got into. Josh didn't want to admit it, not even to himself, that Jessi's disappearance was scaring him. At least, when Kyle was gone, he could talk to him and would get an inkling that his adopted brother was okay, even if he didn't know all the details. With Jessi though…there was no telling what was happening to her or what the mad-kidnapper was doing.

Josh pushed those thoughts aside and stared out the window, focusing on the greenery as it rushed passed his window in a dizzying blur. It was such a nice day out, a stark contrast to the doom and gloom that seemed to always linger around the Tragers. He wanted to angle his head upward to take a look at the sky, see the clouds and maybe convince himself that nothing was wrong. Foolish thought he knew because reality had a tendency of crashing down around his ears when he least wanted it too, but even so…

His father finally pulled up to the spot, putting the car in park and shutting it off. It took a moment for he and Josh to get out of the car, and before Josh could, his father grabbed him, twisting in his seat to face his son with a worried, but concerned look. Josh swallowed, meeting his father's gaze in trepidation.

"Be careful," his father said shortly, looking away and out to the open spot that revealed a breathtaking view of the Seattle skyline. "Just…look out for…anything, and…if you see…something…let me know. Don't touch anything, just…let me know."

Josh gave a single shake of his head and swallowed again, unnerved. His father nodded himself before giving Josh's arm a squeeze and then getting out of the car. Josh followed swiftly, keeping his eyes peeled on the seemingly innocent surroundings that he and his father found themselves in. There was nothing there, just trees and shrubbery and a light dusting of grass over the surface of the earth. There was an outcropping of abandoned concrete that jutted over a slight hundred-foot drop, but that was all that completed the lonely place and Josh had to give Jessi credit on disappearing off to the one place that nobody smarter than Kyle would be able to find.

He walked the circumference of the spot while Stephen stepped over rock and grass carefully. Josh kicked a pebble and came to stand beside the concrete outcropping. The sun shone on the artificial rock and he laid his hand across it, imaging Jessi sitting there, basking in the glow of barely-there-starlight contemplating whatever super-geniuses contemplated in their loneliness. He wondered what drove her to this quiet place. What had possibly upset her existence again that had driven her to seek the comfort of such a lonely spot?

He walked the circumference of the clearing again, trying to think like a Latnok evil-doer, but all his mind could keep thinking of was Jessi and his dreams and…

Then it happened. He stepped on a single blade of grass, the wind blew and his heart stopped. The entire world exploded into a Technicolor nightmare. Neon greens and blues and pinks were streaming passed his vision at light speed and all he could see were these strange images, strange moving pictures on the back of his eyelids that made no sense and had him screaming, even though he could hear himself, and falling to the ground in agony, even though he couldn't feel anything at all. Just the colors, just the pictures that he could not understand and that were moving too fast for his mind to catch up to.

_**8o8o8**_

Stephen had turned at Josh's abrupt shout and watched—as if the world had suddenly been slowed down by a cosmic hand—his son's eyes roll back into his skull and Josh fall to the ground. His heart stopped before slamming back into action full force and he rushed over to his son, pure adrenaline and panic sweeping aside any anxieties he'd had moments before.

"Josh!" he shouted, gathering his son in his arms. Josh's body began to convulse, deep shakes that ripped through his muscles and made his jaw crash together in jarring sound. Stephen was cursing to himself as he hoisted Josh up, gathered him in his arms again—and with a strength he didn't know he had—dashed off to the car and loaded his son in. He got into the driver's side and immediately cranked the car up and into gear, not bothering with his seat belt. There was no time. No time at all.

Whatever it was that was affecting Josh had to have something to do with Latnok, had to have something to do with Jessi's disappearance and had to have something to do with Kyle. What it was, he wasn't sure, but he was going to get to the bottom of it.

"Josh, just hold on…

"Hold on."

_**8o8o8**_

He snapped awake immediately as if someone had rudely shaken him from a dream. He had been in a clearing and the whole world was new: green grass and trees, the first tale-tell signs that the earth was awakening itself from its winter sleep and ushering in the rebirth of spring. His father had been there and they had been…trying to find…something, but… The contents of it slipped away and Joshua looked up and gave a start. Two very awake, very lucid brown eyes were staring at him intently from across the room. He licked his lips nervously and stood.

"You're awake again." It was a statement , not a question, but even so Joshua felt dumb for saying it. She always had that affect on him before; he just didn't figure her teenage self would have that affect on him too. Jessi smirked and Joshua swallowed a suddenly dry throat.

"You said when I got better you'd tell me everything," she replied, not missing a beat. "Well, I slept. I'm feeling better. Spill."

He chuckled in spite of himself. "I always forget how blunt you can be."

Jessi's gaze took on a razor edge. Her lips curled back into a snarl. "Who. ?"

Joshua turned and grabbed the water canteen that he kept on his person and approached her cautiously. She eyed him and the canteen warily, and drew back when he opened it to give her water. She shook her head fiercely and struggled to sit upright. He tried to reach out to help her, but the look she shot him stopped him cold. Instead he threw up his hands in a sign of defeat and watched as she managed to sit herself upright.

Alright, there were a lot of things that he had forgotten about her, this time period and just how stubborn and capable Jessi XX could be. After all, she was superhuman and made of the same stuffs that the Destroyer was. How could he have ever forgotten how powerful she could be when she really set her mind to a task? He capped the canteen and set it back where he had found it before taking his seat once again across from her. He watched her and she watched him, not breaking eye contact, until Joshua, unnerved, looked away.

He swallowed, shifted in his chair and breathed.

Here goes.

"You already know me, Jessi," he began, meeting her gaze again. "Even if I don't look the same."

Her face creased into a puzzled frown. "I don't know you. Is this some kind of a game? Are you Latnok?"

He chuckled again.

"No," he replied softly. "Although, life might've been much easier if I'd've just bitten the bullet and become one of them. One of Latnok." He bit off the last part with some bitterness. "But no, I'm not one of them. I'm someone else. Someone pretty close to you—"

"Quit the guessing games," she growled, "and just tell me who you are!"

He breathed, heart speeding up to beat furiously in his chest. Butterflies fluttered like mad circus tricks gone wrong in his gut and his palms suddenly became very sweaty. He wiped them off on the fabric of his pants and all she did was watch him, watch him with those piercing brown eyes that cut him deep into his soul, dragged out all of his secrets and laid them bare for the entire world to see. He suddenly missed that older, wiser, snarkier Jessi that developed fourteen years into the future. At least he didn't have to tell _that_ Jessi anything of what had transpired in the past. She was there for part of it, and what she had been absent for…well, Joshua had filled her in on.

But this Jessi…this one, he had forgotten about in the long years of war, buried deep under memories of better times, memories that he had thrust so far down in his subconscious that it would take every effort he had to drag them out kicking and screaming. They were sketchy: he remembered that bad things had happened to Jessi, but not quite what. He remembered that people had not always been kind to her, but not whom and that when things seemed like they were looking up, life always smacked her with something else to tear all of her efforts down.

The older Jessi—_his_ Jessi—had accepted that her life was a piece of crap, but even then…she made the most of it. She still joked and laughed and played poker with the guys after long missions and the nights when soldiers just wanted to unwind. But this Jessi, this Jessi's heart was still an open wound that the world still had much more to bruise. This Jessi had not yet seen the heartaches that would be reaped on her nor the injustices that she would have to suck up and deal with.

But, if Joshua could help it, she would never, ever have to see those dramas unfold nor see the fruition of her life's tragedies. If he could help it, he would change things for her, for everyone.

"Jessi," he began, quietly. "It's me…Josh."

_**8o8o8**_

It was Lori, not Nicole, who had received Stephen's frantic phone call. She had been standing on the front porch, cradling the small device in her hand and waiting for it to ring—like she had been waiting for it for nearly three hours—and let her know if the Seattle police had found anything. For three hours it had remained silent in her arms and she had remained still as a statue, watching the world pass by, hoping against hope that nothing had happened to Jessi, hoping that they'd find her and that she'd be alright.

It was as she was glancing right that two things had happened at once: Amanda came out of her home, going straight to the mailbox and glanced up at and Lori, who'd lifted a hand to wave, and the phone rang scaring her witless. She picked it up immediately, not seeing the frown that had creased Amanda's face nor the way the blonde-haired teen made a move to approach the Trager house.

"_Nicole?! Nicole?!"_ came Stephen's panicked shout from the phone's receiver. The phone immediately flew to Lori's ear and she called out, "Dad, what's wrong? Did you find her?"

She didn't notice that Amanda had come up the walkway of the Trager's home, her frown creased even further. She stepped lightly up the stairs as Stephen shouted through the phone, _"Lori?! Go-go get your mother! Now!"_

"What? Why?" Lori asked, panic lacing her voice. It was then that she glanced up and saw Amanda standing at her side, mouthing, 'What's wrong?' Lori shook her head, feeling helpless tears want to spring to her eyes. She heard her father curse, heard a pained groan in the background and all color drained from her face.

"Dad, is that Josh?"

"Go get your mother." She jumped at the vehemence in her father's voice and rushed towards the front door before remembering Amanda had been standing beside her. She turned back to the very confused, very puzzled Bloom girl and said, "Amanda, now is…it's just not the time."

"What's going on?" Amanda demanded, walking forward and grabbing Lori's arm. "Does it…Does it have to do with…Kyle?"

"Look," Lori swallowed, feeling helpless. "Can you come back later?"

"I want to help," Amanda replied, her eyes pleading. Lori gripped the phone tightly and nodded before rushing off to find her mother, and Amanda breathed, taking a step into the Trager household, feeling like a prisoner on death row. It had been so long since she had been in this house she half-expected it to suddenly sprout tentacles and chase her away. She stepped inside cautiously and closed door, still gripping her mother's mail, but not quite sure what to do with herself.

She knew she shouldn't be there. After all, it was her that had pushed Kyle away after he had run off to go and help Jessi…once again. But…she couldn't help herself. Something about Kyle kept dragging her into his life, and like a moth to a flame, she couldn't help but follow her desires no matter how much the other parts of her kept shouting 'No!' She walked deeper into the Trager house, gently touching the wall and setting her mother's mail down on the table that decorated the foyer. She looked up, saw herself in the mirror and gave a grim sort of smile. She did say she was going to help. She could just sense that something was wrong here, and even if she weren't needed, she'd let someone else tell _her _that. Until then, she'd lend a hand.

"Amanda," came the soft whisper, and Amanda gave a start before turning swiftly to face the speaker of her softly spoken name, and when she saw him, her eyes widened to bright, blue saucers. It was Kyle, looking to all the world like a lost puppy. Bags were under his eyes and his skin was paler than usual. He looked like a man who had stared into the face of death.

"Kyle," she whispered back, reaching out a hand to him, wanting to take him into her arms. Had she done this when she had turned him away? Was he torn up and broken about his decision to once again abandon her for Jessi? Was he what all the fuss was about in the Trager house?

For a second, Kyle looked grateful, as if this was what he had been wanting for, but when he looked up into her gently smiling face, whatever grateful emotion he'd had evaporated immediately and he looked just as sorrowful as ever.

"You shouldn't be here," he informed her and looked away. "You should—"

"But I'm here now," she replied softly, stepping closer. "And…And, if you need me…I'm not going anywhere."

He looked up at that, surprise registering in his deep blue eyes. She smiled wider and he allowed himself a gentle smile in turn. He grabbed her hand instead of falling into her arms like she was sure he wanted to and took her into the living room and seated them both on the couch. She turned to him, her gaze expectant and he met her gaze dead on.

"Amanda, I—"

"No," she said gently, cupping his face in her hands. "Let's not talk about it. Let's just—"

But they were interrupted by a panic-stricken Lori, who—with tears pouring down her face—entered the living room and said in a shaking voice," It's Josh…Something's wrong."

_**8o8o8**_

"_You probably won't believe this," he began. "Sometimes when, I think about it…and I mean, really think about it…Sometimes, I don't want to believe it either. You must realize, Jessi, that…so much has changed. And not for the better. The whole world…it became really screwed. FUBAR. And so irrevocably so that…no one was sure that this little gamble would work. I mean, c'mon…seriously…time travel? Who'd have thunk it? Who'd have dreamed it possible? Well, I'll tell you who. You did Jessi. You did, and for one second, in this messed up existence and life, I had hope. Real hope…"_

His heart was beating faster and faster in a chest that he wasn't even aware of. His body was shaking in a body that he couldn't remember was his own. All he could see were the dizzying, sickening colors that rushed passed his mental vision and the horrible nausea that he felt when he saw what was there. War. War, and the ruined remnants of Seattle. Burning cities. Slave encampments and the face of someone he had trusted so implicitly displayed across billboards and television screens and broadcasted on radios: _'You will submit. You will submit. The _Creator _knows what's good for you. The _Creator_ is your guiding light. Trust the _Creator_. Love the _Creator_.'_

But somewhere deep down, his mind was screaming, 'Wrong. Wrong. All wrong. He is the Destroyer. The Destroyer will level you, will waste you and will kill your soul.'

But even deeper than that, even deeper, in a world that he was no longer aware of, someone was shouting at him, "Come back, Josh! Goddamn, don't you leave me! Come back!"

"_It wasn't supposed to be this way, you know?" he continued. "Life wasn't supposed to turn out this way. Everything was supposed to go on its merry little course. Me and Andy, we were supposed to get married, you know? Have the house, the white picket fence, the dog and the cat and the two point five, cancer-free kids, but…Andy had always been so outspoken. I don't remember much about her, but I do remember that. She'd never been able to keep mouth shut about anything, always expressing her opinion, always telling others what she thought. Maybe that was the reason why he killed her first. Kill off the strongest opposition you have—those that know you best—and the world won't see what kind of monster you've become."_

More colors. More visions, more images floating passed. He knew these things, something in him knew these things, but…he didn't know them either. A very strange and confusing paradox. But then, one image streamed passed his vision and it almost stopped his heart…a second time. Andy, red hair and green eyes, twinkling at him, was bloody and bruised and he could see, looking at this horrible image through his own eyes, a shadow of a boy with dark, black hair and blue eyes glaring at her with such anger and such hatred in his eyes that it made Josh sick to his stomach to see. How could—

Where could—

What was going on here?!

But Andy was smiling at him through her and mouthing like a new age mantra, 'Be strong, Josh. I love you, I love you. Be strong.'

She wasn't pleading for her life. She was screaming or asking for mercy. She was staring at him, her eyes were twinkling and she was smiling and she was telling him to be the strong one. This was worse than her cancer threatening to come back. This was worse than anything he could ever experience in his life.

Please, please, dear God, let this be a dream…

But dreams didn't feel this real, didn't have this flavor of reality around, didn't have this finality to them, like he was staring at an aspect of his life that had already happened. But it was crazy because this had _never _happened. This had never—

His hand came up, blues eyes shadowed with a dark intent and Josh cried out, sobbing, pleading and screaming profanities, 'No, don't! Please, dear God, don't! Please, Kyl—"

He could feel the sweep of power like the gentlest caress across his face before Andy's body locked up, tense for the briefest second, and then slumped forward. Dead. Her green eyes were lifeless as they stared at him. Her face slack, never to smile at him, never to laugh. Nothing. Nothing.

Josh let out a howl of grief.

"_He killed so many, but nobody thinks him capable of it now. Right now, he's probably the innocent boy that everyone knows and loves, but to me…I know him as a monster. Sure, I was gullible like everyone else, but I've seen the things he's capable of. I know the things he can do to people. He gets inside of you and messes with your head. He can do that Jessi. He can…" Pause. Cleared throat. "But I'm digressing, aren't I? You want to know what happened, right? Not the ramblings of some thirty-year-old war vet, eh? Alright. I'll tell you. But this isn't going to be easy to hear."_

It was all in rewind, a crazy story from the beginning, and his father was somewhere outside of his confused consciousness, shaking and sobbing with a nurse trying to comfort him and his mother and sister, his brother and his neighbor on their way to the hospital and its staff that was trying to keep him alive. He was lost in this world of memories, but eventually they dragged him back, all the way back, to the beginning when everything began to fall apart.

He saw it in crystal clarity. He saw it as clearly as day, as clearly as stars on a cloudless night, and what he saw chilled him to the core.

No, no. That was impossible.

It couldn't happen.

It wouldn't happen.

Not…him.

Not…

No.

"_In one week, Latnok is going to kill Amanda Bloom, and Kyle is going to destroy the world."_

8o8o8

Josh woke with a scream in his throat just as Joshua sat up straight in his chair with a jerk and breathed as if his throat were raw. Jessi was staring at him intently and he licked his lips, dragged his canteen to his suddenly dry lips, popping the top and taking a long gulp of the refreshing liquid.

"That doesn't make any sense," Jessi replied heatedly. Joshua glanced at her, but she wasn't looking at him. She shook her head, fixed him with a momentary glare. "Kyle would never…Kyle wouldn't…I mean, Kyle would never destroy the world. Me…maybe, but Kyle…Kyle loves everyone."

Joshua dropped his empty canteen in his lap and let a grim smile split his face in two. "Oh you think so, eh? Kyle has the same abilities as you, the same will power and the same passions grip him."

"But, but," she looked away again. "He wouldn't…not for anything. Amanda gets killed by Latnok? Why?"

"Why'd she get kidnapped?" Josh countered. Jessi glared at him.

"Kidnapped," she snapped. "Not killed."

The grim smile snaked its way across Joshua's face again. "Let me break it down to you then:

"Kyle goes crazy with grief because of what happened, and he kills Cassidy. Then he takes over Latnok and after that…well, Seattle was the first city he destroyed."

"That doesn't make any sense," Jessi continued, stubbornly. "What happened? Why didn't I stop him?"

"You left," Joshua replied with a shrug. Jessi look immediately became a perplexed one.

"I left?" she repeated in disbelief. Joshua nodded solemnly.

"I suppose it was…after he'd told Amanda the truth about himself." He shrugged. "Must've brought them closer together? But, it drove you away…made you think that you'd lost the only real person in this world that, uh, meant something to you…and…when Latnok killed her and Kyle went psycho, there was no one to stop him. No one to put an end to the reign of terror before it became so."

"So…when did I join the…uh, war effort?" she asked, her voice still tinged with disbelief.

"When it looked like it was hopeless." Joshua smirked again. "At least, for us normal humans anyway. You came in like an angel of death, killing off an entire platoon of his soldiers all by yourself. Then…well, you settled more for the science track than you did the…uh…war front. You made advancements in technology that turned the war around for us. Turned it around enough that we thought we could win it…"

"But?" Jessi's eyes were wide now, and her body leaning slightly forward, all ears, intently listening. Joshua kept his grin of satisfaction to himself. It wasn't always that Jessi got play hero, he remembered that too. It must've been a treat to hear that she'd saved his ass more times than he could count.

"Kyl—I mean, the Destroyer—brought out the big guns…Something we couldn't handle and…it decimated everything," he replied, his voice somber. "Everything…all of our troops, our supply lines…everything. And when we all thought it was lost, you told the big bosses that you had a secret weapon that could possibly change everything so that nothing would be the same ever again. A secret weapon that would help us win."

"Time travel," Jessi finished and sat back on her cot. "Unbelievable." She was quiet for a moment, contemplating what he had told her and Joshua watched her, watched as the gears worked in her head. He wanted to believe that she believed him. He wanted to believe that his gamble would work. That Jessi was the key to stopping everything, to preventing the war and to changing the course of history, even if that meant depriving himself of the history that they developed between each other. He wanted her to believe him, needed her to.

She looked up with a start, surprising him from his inner thoughts, and asked, "But then…why take me? Why did you…"

"Hopefully," Joshua admitted quietly, "to take his focus from…her."

"I don't…I don't understand," she replied, puzzled. "He…he probably already told her and they're probably…"

"He didn't get the chance to," Joshua said firmly. "And…with you taken, he'll focus more on…getting you back."

Jessi's look of disbelief returned. "So, what…you're playing a time traveling matchmaker? C'mon." She shook her head, her face cracking a little and showing the sorrow that existed underneath it all. "Kyle cares about her…about…Amanda. He's not going to…he won't…he won't come looking for me with his _precious_ Amanda around."

Joshua was silent for a moment. "Maybe he won't…And maybe he will."

Her look was a hopeful one before she masked it behind a look of stone. "He won't."

She looked away, fiddled with her shirt hem and Joshua continued to watch her, wishing so desperately that this entire ordeal could be over with. He wanted to know if he somehow went back now, would he be returning to a much happier future where he, in his current incarnation did not exist, or would it be the same dismal future? Was anything he was saying or doing making even the slightest difference?

"Can you just…" Jessi started, then stopped and swallowed. "Can you just…turn this…dampening what's it off, please?"

"I don't know if I should do that," Joshua replied, steel lacing his tone. Jessi glared at him.

"Look," she growled. "You already kidnapped me, battered me and are stopping me from using my powers. I heard what you had to say. Now, let me go."

Joshua raised an eyebrow. "And what will you do? I know, you'll go back to _him_ and tell him exactly what I've said and then everything…EVERYTHING…that I've done will be for nothing. No, you'll stay put."

"No, I won't," Jessi hissed. Joshua raised his other eyebrow.

"Oh, you won't will you," he hissed back. "Trust me, you built this field. You can't break out of it, you can't manipulate it, you can't do anything unless I turn it off and since I'm not in the mood to—"

"What did he ever do to you that makes you hate him so much?" Jessi asked, her brown eyes laser points again and Joshua paused in mid-rant, feeling like someone had dumped him with a bucket of cold water. He swallowed and looked away, a frown creasing his features.

Did he dare tell her? Did he dare let her know what kind of a monster Kyle was? Or the monster that Kyle could be? He breathed and listened to her and she shifted on the cot.

"He killed her," Joshua replied, quietly.

"What?" Jessi asked, puzzled.

"He killed her," Joshua repeated louder. "He killed Andy. He killed everyone. Except Declan, but even he wished he were dead sometimes."

"K-Kyle?" Jessi asked, her voice horrified. Joshua nodded.

"He killed Andy first. She was one of the few to oppose him, you know? I kept quiet little the good, little coward that I was. Then he killed…Lori and-and Mark…and Dad and Mom…He killed them all because…I mean, how could he look at them and not remember what he had been? How could he not peer into their faces and see the kind boy that had loved everyone and everything. He'd called himself the Creator to the rest of the world, but to those of us that had survived his nasty assault on Seattle, we knew. We knew.

"He wanted to no part of that boy that he had been. And when Latnok killed Amanda, he figured that us lower humans didn't know how to think for ourselves and make decisions for ourselves and that we'd always entertain hurting others before helping them. He's always been that you, you know? He never let others make their own decisions. He just always figure: 'Kyle knew best. Kyle was so smart. Kyle was always on top of things. Kyle was always helping and always take control.' No one ever thought that those same 'good' traits could go horribly wrong if unchecked. And nobody ever checked them because he was Kyle and he was good."

Joshua shook himself as if he were trying to shake the old cobwebs of horrible memories from his mind. He looked up and met Jessi gaze.

"I have to stop him," he continued firmly, "anyway I know how."

"And you're going to use me to do it?" she snapped, her words laced with anger.

Joshua's jaw hardened. "If I have to."

"Then you're no better than Latnok," she replied in a hiss.

"Maybe not," Joshua hissed back, "but at least it changes the future. At least, it saves the world."

"If you want to save the world," Jessi replied, her voice softer, "then let me go."

Joshua breathed. "I can't do that. I can't—"

"Then for all you know," she cut in, "the future's going to be the same."

8o8o8

**Afterward:** Okay, I know, I know...the collective groans of "Aw, more KylexAmanda" are reverbrating in my ears, but don't worry...I've got to do this realtistically. And, remember, hold on to what I said at the beginning: KESSI in the end.

_**PS:** This goes out to A True Dreamer and Alexander Ripley. Thanks for totally getting what I was trying to do. I wasn't sure if it came out quite the way I wanted it to and yous guys totally affirmed that I am not a basket-case!_


	6. Chapter 6

**Title:** In and Out of Time (6/?)  
**Author:** wonderbread9  
**Rating:** PG-13 - R  
**Characters:** The Cast of Kyle XY, OCs here and there  
**Pairings:** Kyle/Amanda, Kyle/Jessi, implied Jessi/Josh  
**Warnings:** See previous chapters

**Disclaimer:** If I owned Kyle XY, there would be no discussion: Season 4 would be on the menu.

**Author's Note:** I'm trying to perfect my 'show-not-tell' method of writing. So, um…if any of yous guys would be so kind, can you tell me if I'm doing a good job? Thank 'ees so much!

**Summary:** _"Mark," he whispered in genuine disappointment. "Such a pity."_

_The younger man drew back in fear and opened his mouth to scream, but the exclamation of terror never resounded. Cassidy pounced on him, like a seasoned predator, subduing Mark's flailing, panic-stricken attempts to flee._

"_Can't have you ruining the game before it even gets started," Cassidy whispered with a silken purr, taking hold of the flailing young man's neck in a choke hold._

**8o8o8**

VI.

The whir of hospital machines came to Lori's ears like strange whispers as she sat still, watching the night nurse smooth a white blanket across Josh's gently rising and falling chest. He was pale, even with the warm glow of hospital lamps surrounding his still figure, his cheeks were gaunt, black circles ringed his eyes and the IV tube that protruded from his pale, thin arm and looked like some kind of opaque alien, slug draining the life out of him. Lori's gaze never wavered, not once, not even when the night nurse asked her if she wanted water; Lori waved her off, barely acknowledging the older, grandmotherly woman's presence. The woman went off with a gentle smile and an '_it'll-be-alright-soon'_ kind of shrug. But Lori knew—she knew deep down in the very depths of her soul—that nothing would ever be alright. Nothing would ever be alright again.

First Jessi, now Josh. She'd always heard that disaster came in threes, and if what she was seeing now was bad, she wondered what the third bomb shell would be. World War Three? She could've laughed at her own pathetic try for humor, but she wasn't Josh; she wasn't the one that could get away with the oh-so-not-funny quips delivered at the most inopportune times and made everyone feel uncomfortable when the situation called for seriousness. She was just little Lori Trager, and once again she felt useless, useless to help her mother those many weeks ago, and now useless to help both Josh and Jessi.

Her nostrils flared, her jaw hardened and her hands clenched into tight, white fists. She shifted in her hospital seat, first from one position then to the other, feeling the rough fabric of her jeans sliding across her thighs as she moved. She heard the rustle of her clothing and the muted conversation of her mother and father's low voices just outside of the room. They were probably discussing what had happened; they were probably discussing what to do. Her jaw clenched tighter, her molars pressing into one another, the muscles in her neck straining under the pressure. Finally, she looked away.

This was all so wrong, very, very wrong. Josh shouldn't be lying in a hospital bed with the doctors, the nurses and even Kyle stumped with what was wrong with him. Josh should've been up, making wisecracks and jokes. Josh should've been standing right beside her telling her that she should stop being a big baby, that everything was going to be alright in that tone of voice of his that brooked no argument and was unshakable in its belief. But he wasn't right beside her. He was the one that was hurt and there was no one to lean on, no one to comfort her. No one to tell her to act her age and man up.

She wanted to cry, but she knew that wouldn't solve anything, and the hysterical outburst that she had let loose earlier when she had been told exactly what had happened to Josh more than adequately made up for any lack of crying now. This had to have had something to do with Jessi's disappearance, but what it could be and how it tied into Latnok was beyond her. She couldn't figure out the pieces of this very strange puzzle and she so desperately wanted to. She wanted to get her life back; she wanted to set it back on the weird, crazy, but normal path that it had been. She wanted her family safe; she wanted her friends safe. She was sick to death of mortal powers playing with her life and her family's lives.

Lori stood, unable to stand the quiet that blanketed Josh's room. She looked over her brother's prone form, unchanged since she had checked it only a few short moments ago, sighed and stepped out into the hallway, breathing deep. The hospital smelled clean, like pinesol and decontaminants. It felt cold, like a meat locker. She hugged herself and looked around, trying to find the other members of the Trager clan. Her mother and father were some feet away from Josh's room, heads bowed in deep conversation. From what Lori could see of her mother's face, it looked like the older woman had been crying. Andy, a late arrival to this dismal party, was seated in a waiting chair, holding a rapidly warming soda in her hand, staring off into nowhere. Lori sighed again, not wanting to deal with her brother's girlfriend right at that moment.

Andy didn't know the secrets that the Trager family kept. She didn't know about Kyle or Jessi or what had happened, and to add that to her already heavy burden just wasn't fair. Besides, it was Josh's secret to tell. Instead, Lori walked over to her, placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and squeezed reassuringly before turning away and continuing down the hall; she didn't see Andy's sad smile of gratitude nor heard the other girl get up and walk into Josh's room to keep the unconscious boy company. She stumbled onto Kyle and Amanda instead, just around the corner, the latter of the pair trying desperately to comfort Kyle. She didn't hear exactly what Amanda had said, but whatever it was had Kyle shaking his head furiously, his blue eyes blazing and him stalking off down the hall.

She stumbled onto Kyle instead, sans Amanda; he was a solitary figure standing, head bowed amidst the rush of hospital staff and nurses and doctors running to and fro. She paused, her brown eyes roving over his slumped shoulders, his downcast eyes, and the hard press of his lips together. It was the look he got when he was thinking about something that was particularly troubling to him, and no doubt the subject that currently occupied his thoughts—that occupied everyone's thoughts at the moment—was what exactly happened to Josh at the spot where Jessi disappeared and whether or not it had something to _do_ with Jessi's disappearance. She wished desperately that it didn't, that somehow the events were unrelated, but she knew there was no chance in hell that her hope would be fulfilled. She watched him a few minutes longer, not wanting to intrude on his quiet, but soon he was looking up, his blue eyes capturing her in the intensity of their gaze.

She stood frozen, mouth parting, wanting to say something, anything, that would relieve Kyle of this burden he carried, but she just didn't have the energy. Just as much as she couldn't spare Andy the energy to dip and dodge the desperate looks that the younger girl shot her way, or the questions that lurked deep within Andy's green eyes, she didn't have any energy to spare Kyle or the conflict of emotions that she was sure was stirring deep within his soul. All she wanted was normal, all she craved was waking up from this nightmare and living the same boring, uneventful existence that she had become accustomed to before Kyle arrived or the craziness that he adopted brother brought. She knew the thoughts were uncharitable. She knew that she was being unfair, but Josh was lying on a hospital bed, pale and sickly looking, and Jessi was still missing.

"Lori," Kyle greeted, his voice a quiet whisper that carried over the bustle of the hospital.

"Kyle." She attempted to smile, but was sure the action resembled a grimace. Eventually, she just stopped trying and went to lean against the wall next to her adopted brother, sighing deeply. She crossed her arms over her chest, sighing again and they fell silent, Kyle's eyes immediately dropping to the floor, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. A diminutive nurse walked by, flashing them a brief smile before continuing on her way, arms loaded with patients' charts. Lori watched her disappear down an opposite hall, wondering if she saw tragedy every single day or whether or not the Trager clan was unique. Like maybe, somehow, tragedy seemed to follow the small family everywhere and this woman was getting a small glimpse into that.

"Kyle," she began, the silence becoming oppressive. "I—"

"It's so strange," Kyle interrupted, the troubled frown still creasing his features. He looked up and met her puzzled gaze before looking away again.

"What?" Lori asked, her own frown creasing her features. Kyle nibbled his lip uncertainly.

"You would think that something like this happening, Jessi disappearing and…and Josh, that the whole world would stop," he replied, his voice puzzled. "But it just—" he looked around the hospital, his gaze sweeping over everything with that same sort of puzzled uncertainty "—keeps going…like, like nothing's happened, like nothing's wrong."

"Yeah," Lori admitted with a helpless shrug, "Well…that's the world for you, Kyle, and it sucks. What's going on here, and with us, I'd hate to say it, but to other people…it doesn't matter."

She wrapped her arms tighter about herself, wishing that it did matter, wishing that people would stop, would see that something terrible had happened and that there was nothing that she could do to make it right, to change it all and set her would back to the same weird, crazy, strange constant that it had been. She looked up, physically feeling the emotional recoil that wracked Kyle's body at the cold, hard unforgiving reality that she admitted. She looked up as his watery blue eyes met hers and she saw the emotional turmoil that roiled within.

"But it does matter," Kyle protested. "Jessi…Josh, they matter, everything...right now…It-It all matters. It has to. Everything—"

"Then, then what are you going to do about it?" Lori cut in, sharply. Confusion colored Kyle's features.

"Lori, I—"

"When Amanda disappeared," Lori began, her voice firm despite the heartbreak that she felt, "you went after her, you did everything in your power to get her back. Why's Jessi any different?"

Kyle's mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out. Finally, he shut his mouth and looked at her then looked away.

"I know this is hard. I know that every time something goes wrong we look to you to help us, but right now—right now—you have to step up, Kyle, even if you don't want to. Go after her," Lori begged. "Please…Jessi's…Jessi' starting to mean so much to this family…and she's all alone. Kyle, you have to—"

"I-I can't," his interrupted, his voice clearly shaken. Lori's pinned him with an incredulous look.

"You—what?" Lori replied in disbelief. "You can't go after her. You can't—Kyle, what the hell—"

She couldn't help the sharp reprimand that filled her voice, or the sudden anger that gripped her and made her want to grab her adopted brother by his shoulders and shake him senseless. It might not do anything to such an advanced body like Kyle's, but it would've made her feel better. Jessi was out there, all by herself, with some crazy monster probably doing who knew what. It didn't matter to Lori that Jessi was just as advanced in body as Kyle or that she had proven in more than enough situations that she could handle herself. All Lori could see in her mind's eye was Jessi's watery brown eyes and her quivering lips and that beaten look that she got whenever she was chastised. She just wanted Jessi home, and it surprised her in that moment just how strong that want was.

"I'm just…" he hesitated, breathed deep. "I'm just scared."

"Oh, Kyle." Lori sighed and pulled her adopted brother into a tight, but comforting embrace. Sometimes she forgot how naïve Kyle was to the big, bad world and how much of the world he didn't understand.

She held him close and whispered, "Nothing's going to happen to Jessi, Kyle, because you're going to find her. She's important to us, but she's more important to you. I know that and because of that, you're going to go out there and you're going to bring her home." She pulled back and met her brother's eyes squarely. "Okay?"

He swallowed thickly and nodded. "O-Okay."

"What's going on?" came the concerned question from behind. Both Kyle and Lori gave a start before Lori turned and saw Amanda standing a few feet away, with two cold sodas in hand. Her blue eyes mirrored the concern that resonated in her voice. Lori pursed her lips at the other girl and glanced back at Kyle. His eyes were trained on the blonde haired teen, following every move that she made like she was a snake-charmer and he was the python that was entranced by her song. Lori wanted to roll her eyes, feeling a wave of annoyance wash over her. She turned, gave Kyle a meaningful look and mouthed, 'Jessi' before sending a small smile Amanda's way and heading back down the hall towards Josh's room, to comfort her parents. Kyle watched her leave, feeling the weight that had lifted upon seeing Lori and speaking with her, settle all the more heavily back on his shoulders.

"Kyle?" Amanda implored, and his gaze snapped back to hers as she stepped forward, soda cans held precariously in her grip. Her look was a worried one.

"Amanda," Kyle began, his voice grim, "I have to go."

The disappointed look that covered her features was enough to break his heart, but he couldn't spare the focus that he was steadily building to comfort her. He had to find Jessi. He had to get her back. It was like a wave of energy was surging through him, an energy that had been noticeably missing in the last twenty-four hours of Jessi's disappearance.

"Why?" Amanda asked, coming up to him, invading his personal space. Her baby blues were imploring as they gazed up at him, but he swiftly looked away, putting distance between himself and her warm, beckoning body. "Kyle?"

"Amanda," he said, his voice firm, his body filling with a resolve that he was struggling to feel, "I have to do this. I have to…I have to go after Jessi. I have to save her."

"Jessi." Amanda rolled her eyes heavenward and shook her head. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Amanda—"

"No," she growled, angrily. "I get it. She needs help…all the time…but Josh is in the hospital, Kyle, and nobody knows what happened, and all you can think about is getting her, getting to Jessi…again. Do you even care?"

"Of course I care," Kyle growled back, suddenly very angry, "I care more than you could ever possibly know, but Jessi needs me. Jessi needs my help and I can't ignore her either." He shook his head, frowning at her. "And I can't believe you'd expect me to."

"Fine then go," Amanda groused. "Just…whatever. Go."

Kyle met her gaze squarely and found anger, annoyance and hurt radiating from Amanda's deep blue eyes and all he wanted to do was go to her, wrap her in his arms and tell her everything, everything about him, everything about his past and all the secrets that he had kept from her, but he knew—felt—almost like the minute atmospheric changes he detected just before a coming storm, a divide between them widening, widening even more so than before. It wasn't just the secrets that was keeping them apart, it wasn't just Jessi's presence that was keeping them apart or the kiss that had finally ended their relationship. It was something else, something—a feeling washed over Kyle as Jessi's face flashed before his mind's eye and butterflies danced madly in his gut—that he was scared to admit, even to himself. He shuddered, swallowed and stepped even farther away from Amanda, towards the hospital's exit.

"Kyle," Amanda called, one last time, her voice much softer, pleading. "Kyle, don't—"

He turned on his heel and ran, ran from the suddenly, very stifling hospital, from Amanda's imploring gaze and Josh's still, prone form on the hospital bed.

He had to find Jessi.

He had to bring her home.

8o8o8

It was a few hours later, with the sun setting over the city of Seattle, spreading a brilliant display of blues, hot pinks and blazing oranges over the skyline, that Josh woke with a shudder and a gasp, breath expelled from strained lungs before his eyes opened a crack then shut just as quickly. The headache that swept over him in those few seconds felt like someone had river-danced across his brain and he groaned, trying to lift his hands to massage his temple and alleviate him from some of the pain.

"Josh?" came the barely breathed inquiry. Josh froze, heart stopping momentarily in the cave of his chest before slamming back to life. His eyes snapped open and his breath caught as bright light washed over his vision, setting his never-endings on fire with the pain. Tears leaked at the edges of his eyes, but he blinked them back, blinked back the painful, blinding light until the world was clear and he was looking into the face of a girl he thought he'd never see again.

"A-Andy?" His throat was raw, his voice came out a croaking groan, but he struggled to sit up nonetheless. His limps and muscles protested every movement that he made, but he continued to pull himself up into a sitting position, his thighs trembling with the effort. She paused, frozen herself, before uttering a relieved sob and rushing to gather him up in a tight embrace.

"God, Josh," she breathed, "don't you ever do that to me again." She met his pain-filled gaze with her own, an unnamed emotion swimming in her eyes' deep, green depths.

"Jesus, Andy," he whispered, pulling her close again, ignoring the pain that ripped through his body, taking in the feel of her, the scent of her, the way her hair tickled his nose as it brushed passed it. Her body was warm, trembling, and all he wanted to do was hold her close and never let her go.

Memories rushed passed his shut eyelids, burning cities and dying comrades, and the blue-eyed man that had caused it all, but other pictures were crashing into those strange images, of his childhood, of dumping a whole bowl of yogurt on Lori's head when he was six and she was eight, a whole world of images that were running together, bleeding into the other. He wasn't sure which reality was which. He saw Andy die in his mind's eye, but saw her—those many weeks ago—coming out of the boy's bathroom with the bright colors of G4 displayed across the screen of her laptop. He saw Jessi's deep brown eyes, lust-filled, staring up at him from a field of stark, burned grass, but knew that she was still missing. Everything was a jumble, everything was a whirlwind of confusion that left him scrambling to pick up the jagged pieces. His body trembled, a shudder of fear running through him.

"Josh?" Andy's voice cut through the confusion like a lighthouse through darkness and he looked up at her, eyes watering, lips trembling.

"You're alive?" he asked, wanting to believe it, knowing it to be true. But then, maybe, it was untrue and he was somewhere dying on a battlefield. Screams rushed through his ears from a different time, from a different place and the whip-crack sound of a gun firing off rounds somewhere to his left filled his ears like a haunting echo. He flinched.

"Of course," Andy replied, trying for a smile. She cupped his face in her hands, pulled him close, kissed him and it felt like heaven to his crazed mind. "Josh, what's wrong?"

"I have to go," he said, urgency filling his voice. "I have to get out of here."

"Hey," she replied in a frightened tone, "you big jerk, you're scaring me. Look, I'm-I'm going to go get your parents, okay?" She started to pull away from him, but Josh's hand shot out, grabbed her and jerked her back. She uttered a surprised, fearful gasp.

"No," he protested, his eyes wild. "Something's going to happen, or has happened, or is happening. Something bad."

"Josh, you-you need help," she whispered, trying to pull her arm from his vise-like grip. "Something is wrong with you. You're sick."

"I'm not sick," Josh growled, his eyes darting this way and that. From somewhere in his memories a cannon exploded and he nearly cried out in alarm, but when he looked around, there was no battlefield, only the dim comforting glow of a Seattle hospital. He didn't understand. He turned to Andy, met her frightened gaze. "I want to go home. Does home still exist?"

"Josh," she began.

"No," Josh interrupted. "I need to go home. He's going to be there, or He is there, or He's already left. I need to stop Him."

"Who?" she asked, the terror that she had felt building since she had gotten the phone call from Lori that Josh was in the hospital finally reaching its breaking point.

"Kyle," Josh replied, his voice colored with confusion. "I have stop Kyle."

"Why? What did Kyle do?"

"It's not what he's done, or maybe he has done it and I'm too late," Josh answered, finally releasing her and gripping his head in his hands. "Maybe I'm too late and he's already—"

"Josh, what are you talking about?" Andy's voice rose an octave in fear.

"Kyle," Josh replied, finally meeting her gaze with a confused one of his own. "He's-He's going to destroy everything…I have to stop him or maybe I have…or maybe it's too late…or maybe I'm early. Andy, I need to go home."

"I'm going to go get your parents." Andy stepped away from him and fled the room, and this time Josh didn't stop her. He sat on his hospital bed, body trembling, with his mind sorting through the mess that his memories had suddenly become, trying desperately to find a balance, an order to the chaos. Was everything destroyed? Was he too late? He looked up and around him at the quiet room, at the hospital monitors and the other empty beds that surrounded his. There were no dying or injured soldiers around him, there was no medic screaming desperately for supplies that they just didn't have and certainly the explosion of well-aimed grenades weren't sending sound waves after sound waves reverberating through the hospital building.

Was this war time? Had they won? Was the Des-Kyl-Destroyer dead? Josh shut his eyes against the confusion and lay back down gingerly in his bed, looking up at the ceiling, feeling panic want to overtake him, but pushing it back. He was a hardened soldier, right? Right? He should be able to handle this. Maybe this was a dream or maybe it was some new device that the Destroyer had come up with. The thought made Josh's stomach curl.

"Josh?" came Lori's voice and he sat up again, shot up more like, and turned to the vision of his older sister, his eyes wide.

"Lori?" he asked in disbelief. She smiled at him.

"Are you okay?"

A dream. A nightmare. Lori was dead, but she wasn't, but she was. His family was killed, but they weren't, but they were. Time was slamming into him like two opposing tides and all he could do was pull back, scramble from his hospital bed, jerking the IV from his arm, blood immediately pouring down his hand.

"You're dead," he shouted, panicked. "You're all dead!"

"Josh," Andy cried. "Josh, calm down!"

"Dead," Josh cried back. "This is something new, isn't it? Something that the Destroyer cooked up to confuse us. Screw with our memories. This never happened."

"Josh, please." Lori opened her arms wide, beckoning him to come into her embrace, but he wouldn't be tricked. He wouldn't be fooled. This was a new game that the Destroyer was playing, he was sure of it. Lori turned to Andy, who was frozen, staring at Josh in a fascinated kind of horror.

"Go get a doctor," Lori ordered. When Andy didn't react, Lori grabbed the other girl's shoulders and shook her. "Go!"

Andy nodded, shakily, and rushed out immediately as Lori turned back to her brother and said in a firm tone, "I don't know what's going on, little brother, but everything's going to be okay."

"It's not," Josh protested. "Don't you see? Don't you—He's turned everything upside down. He's gotten into my head. He's taken everything. He's crushed us. He's crushed the rebellion. Now, no one can stop Him!"

He turned around, faced the hospital wall and punched it with all the force that existed in his pale, thin arm. It hurt, it hurt more than anything, as he felt his knuckles collide with the wall's hard concrete surface. He pulled his arms back, cradled his hand and stared at it. Stared at it long and hard, his eyes widening.

"Young," he hissed, painfully flexing his hand. He lifted the other, blood covered knuckle to his face. "Both young." He touched his chest, smearing his blood across the front of the hospital gown. "No scars. Young body. Doesn't make any sense. I'm thirty-years-old. I'm thirty."

He shuddered, sank to the floor, mind even more confused and jumbled than it had been.

"Josh," came Lori's soft voice from behind. He turned and looked at her and she approached him cautiously, settling down beside him and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Please, tell what's happening to you."

"I don't know," Josh replied, lifting his hands to his face and staring at them.

"Let me get that." Lori pulled his still bleeding hand to her, and covered it with her own, trying to stop the flow of blood. Her palm was warm. It was real. He could feel the rapid pulse that beat underneath the skin.

"You're alive," he said, his eyes roving over her face, taking in her features.

"Of course," she replied.

"But…" Josh's voice trailed off and he looked away. "Mom and Dad? Alive?"

"All of us."

"I don't understand."

"Josh, what's happening to you?"

He shrugged. "Where's Jessi?"

"Still missing," Lori answered, quietly.

"Missing?" Josh mulled on that, frowned.

"Don't you remember?" Lori asked in a small, frightened tone.

"No," Josh admitted faintly.

It was then that the doctor finally arrived and Josh, after some coaxing, was finally put back to bed. Andy cornered Lori in the hall, her eyes watery, but her face determined.

"I know you know something," she stated, firmly. Lori looked away and nodded.

"When all this is over," Andy said. "You guys are going to tell me everything."

8o8o8

The recreation room was silent and dark as Mark stepped inside, brow furrowed and eyes darting this way and that, looking for other wayward young scientists like himself, but there was no one. The science department building was strangely silent for a night like this; usually there was a constant hustle and bustle of faces, old and new, working at their stations on the next great invention or others hanging out near the pool table or bar discussing whatever bright minds like him discussed on their down time. He stepped fully into the quiet room, frown deepening as he walked towards his station, strewn with haphazard stacks of papers, research notes, books and a picture of Lori that he had taken while she wasn't looking. He smiled faintly when he saw it, picked it up for a moment and admired the subtle beauty of his girlfriend in relaxed repose, her face unmarred by the small, but constant frown that seemed to linger around her features.

He knew that his involvement with a shady organization like Latnok might not appeal to Lori. He knew that if she found out about his involvement with the secret society that she'd probably do more to him than give him a dressing down with that infamous Lori Trager Tongue Lashing that he had to realize she was well-known for. After all, the higher ups had told him to stop seeing her when they'd found out that she was Kyle's adopted sister and then, quite suddenly, changed their mind within the same span of a week. He knew that would_ not _go over well with the headstrong girl, but he was committed to Latnok, just as much as he was committed to her. They'd paved the way for his future, after all, when his family didn't have the money to. He owed them, but he knew there would come a time, very soon, that he would have to let his girlfriend know of his ties to the society.

He put the picture down after a moment and turned to his desk, frown back in place, looking around for the small, black USB drive that he had forgotten about earlier today. It contained a plethora of notes that he had been steadily building up all week, gearing up for his own project that involved sound waves and echolocation for the military, but had accidently left behind on a mad dash to get to a DJing gig half-way across town. He'd meant to go straight home after the gig and get started on the first half of the project, but—upon finding that the drive wasn't with him—had to turn around and make the arduous trip back to the university to retrieve it. All he wanted to do now was find it, get home, call Lori and get started on his work. He shifted a few stacks of papers around, looked underneath other stacks and resettled Lori's picture elsewhere on the desk, but could not find it.

He made a puzzled sound and bit his lip, looking underneath the work station and crouching low to the ground to search the floor. Maybe he'd dropped it—?

It was then that he heard the familiar, lilting accent of Michael Cassidy, patron saint golden boy of the Latnok superiors. Mark looked up, but did not rise as Cassidy passed close by his workstation, engaged in what appeared to be a heated conversation with someone on his cellphone. Mark could hear the other's voice—clearly male and accented much like Cassidy's—but could not hear what the other was saying.

"Yes, yes, I understand that we're under a time schedule, but I'm doing my best to—" Cassidy stopped abruptly, right next to Mark's station and the younger man swallowed, holding his breath.

"You don't understand the delicacies of this situation," Cassidy growled, angrily. "If Kyle doesn't see the façade that I am trying to build then he'll never join us and everything that Latnok's been planning will be for naught. Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

Mark heard what appeared to be a muffled argument issue forth from the phone and Cassidy's annoyed, but muttered curse.

"I understand your feelings on the matter, Blackston," Cassidy continued, his tone much lighter and more obliging, "but I don't think we should be taking any drastic measures just yet."

Cassidy was moving off towards his office and Mark, curious to the conversation and what it pertained to Kyle, peeked his head above the top of the desk, watching as Cassidy disappeared down the hall. He stood and looked around. His first instinct told him to get out, get away and pretend like he never heard anything at all. After all, whatever happened between Kyle and Cassidy was their business and he, more than anyone, knew not to tango with the higher-ups of Latnok's elite.

But the thought of Lori gave him pause. What if whatever Latnok were planning for Kyle somehow hurt Lori? He couldn't stand by while Cassidy plotted and schemed whatever dastardly plan he had for the dark-haired blue-eyed boy and ignore the fact that Lori could somehow get caught up in the crossfire. Lori was his girlfriend, and while sometimes she annoyed the hell out of him with her nick-picking and her sometimes unwanted snarky comments, he cared about her, cared about her deeply and he didn't want any harm to come to her; especially not if he could have somehow prevented it.

So, ignoring the warning bells and the little voice in his head that was yelling at him in increasingly louder volume to get away, Mark followed Cassidy quietly down the hall. He assumed the man had gone to his office, but as he got closer to it, he heard Cassidy talking to the mysterious "Blackston" from further down the hall. Mark paused, listened, breathed and continued forward, stepping lightly and trying not to make a sound. He had never been this far into the science department. He'd known that the building was pretty expansive, but his scope of it was confined only to the recreation room and the science labs that sat in an adjacent room to the rec. room.

He didn't know that beyond Cassidy's door had lay this hallway that was fast departing from its safe atmosphere, hardwood interior and walls covered with pictures of past scholars and scientists to grace the science departments halls. No, the air was beginning to feel colder and sterile, like a hospital or a morgue. Goose pimples rose along the flesh of his arm at the sudden temperature drop and as Mark continued on—following the sound of Cassidy's voice—he noticed the scenery around him changing from the hardwoods that he was used to to metal piping and concrete walls and dull linoleum floors that had seen better days; it felt like he was entering a military base and not the science department of a city university.

Up ahead the light grew dimmer and Mark had to squint to see. Cassidy had rounded a corner to the left and Mark paused as the little voice in his head, the little voice of reason that had never steered him wrong when it had lead him to accept Latnok's invitation, when it had to him that there was just something about Lori Trager and all the other million-million times it had warned him like a sixth sense to not do something because of the dire consequences that could be exacted spoke up and told him, 'Turn back now, Mark. Go home. Pretend like you never saw this place. You never heard Cassidy. Just go him.'

He nibbled his lip and glanced back the way he had come. There was light back there, and freedom, and the lie that he could tell himself if anything bad did happen to Lori: 'I wasn't there. I didn't hear anything. I don't know anything.'

But he couldn't just leave knowing that whatever was going on could potentially hurt Lori, directly or indirectly. He'd never he able to look himself in mirror knowing that he'd chickened out at the last minute and that he could've helped, even in this small way. So, he turned on his heel and he continued forward, following the fading sounds of Cassidy's voice and praying to whatever powers existed in the universe that his sudden chivalry wasn't going to get him killed.

8o8o8

Michael Cassidy was more than a little angry.

He was livid, and the burning emotion only mounted as he listened to the condescending tone that Aaron Blackston spoke to him with that he usually reserved for incompetent subordinates. But Cassidy was no subordinate; he was Blackston's equal and if the other man were standing right in front of him at that moment, Cassidy would've shoved his fist right down the smug bastard's throat. Instead, he listened to Blackston's tirade for the umpteenth time, trying to keep his own temper in check. He didn't need the hassle that Blackston could bring to his operations in Seattle. All he needed to do was keep Blackston dangling on a very loose leash while he continued on his own course of action, and—when he could produce the desired results that the 'olde guard' were looking to achieve—he'd be the one smug and smirking whilst Blackston scrambled about like the useless fool that he was.

It was only a matter of time.

"Of course, Aaron," Cassidy purred in a tone of voice that he hoped sounded agreeable. The other man grunted on the other end.

"I assume you know the importance of having experiment 781227 under our control," the other man continued, "and we have been waiting for months for satisfactory updates on his progress and his induction in our ranks, and yet there is nothing. Nothing to show for all our efforts in funding your little venture. You have one week, Michael. One week."

"A week?!" Cassidy exclaimed angrily. "Blackston, be reasonable. I can't force the boy to join our ranks. I can't force his hand. He must do it on his own, with no pretenses. I can't—"

"One week," the man cut in, his voice as cold as steel, "and then we shall take over."

Cassidy was flabbergasted. He breathed deep, reining in his emotions and swallowed thickly. As calm as he could, he replied, "Yes, Blackston. As you wish," and hung up the phone quickly before he said something that could quite possibly end his career, and his life, with the secret, but prestigious Latnok society. Cassidy stepped into the cold, sanitized room that was his destination at the start of his conversation with Aaron Blackston and looked around. There was no one here at the moment, all staff members and workers gone for the evening. It was quiet with the gentle whir of machines and the steady beep-beep-beep of a heart monitor off to the corner of the room.

But none of these machines were the dominant, or most important, feature in the room. No, not at all. Cassidy's eyes were trained on the large tank that rested in front of him and the body that floated within.

"One week," he muttered to himself and pulled up a chair from one of the workstations beside him. He didn't bother to check the monitors of the workstation or what those monitors read; he was not, after all, a scientist and wouldn't know the first thing about the numbers that flashed across the screen or what they would mean. Instead, he pulled the chair as close to the tank as he dared and sat down, his eyes trained intently on the peaceably sleeping face, the relaxed features and expression on the figure within.

"One week," he repeated to no one in particular. "Who do they think they are, ordering me about like I'm some kind of whipping boy? This takes finesse. This is a very fine game that I'm playing, and I'm playing it to win. So what if my methods aren't the ones that they themselves would take. Can't they see? Nothing that they've tried worked."

Cassidy sat back in his chair, watched as the figure's face furrowed slightly. A separate monitor beeped. Chemicals were pumped into the tank. The face relaxed and the features stilled. Cassidy smirked.

"I could let you out, you know," he said loudly, the smirk filling his voice. "I could let you ruin everything that they've worked hard for, strived to build. You could level it all. They don't know what you're capable of, but I do. I've read the files on you. I know what they did. I know why they keep you locked inside of this prison." Cassidy stood, walked about the tank, arms crossed, smirk still firmly in place. "We're both prisoners. They want Kyle XY, but you're true culmination of their research, you're the echelon that they wish to be."

He leaned over the glass of the tank, unlaced his arms and pressed his hands firmly against the glass. He breathed. The glass fogged up, but the figure inside was still, tranquil, unmoving.

"We'll play their game," Cassidy whispered. "We'll play their game until they've used up all their moves, until they've played every ill-fated hand in their arsenal. I'll bring into our ranks, and I'll show them how foolish they are for trying to tango with me."

Cassidy stood, pulling his cellphone from his pocket. There was one way to get Kyle to listen to what Latnok had to say, and even though Cassidy detested breaking the laws of the land, he knew that a few rules needed to broken to get the job done. The first time the olde guard had wanted Amanda Bloom kidnapped had been because they'd wanted to have a small audience with their little science experiment; they wanted to get a taste of what Kyle was capable of. Now, Cassidy would do it to force Kyle's hand, to make him adhere to what the society heads wanted, and if that plan fell through, well…

"They're not going to take this away from me," Cassidy murmured to the tank, "And, if this little gamble fails, you'll be my contingency, and we'll see what the olde heads'll think then."

He flipped open his cell phone and punched in a number. The phone rang for a few moments before the line was picked up. Cassidy heard someone's light breathing on the other end of the line.

He said, simply, "I need you." There was no change to the soft breathing on the other end, but a light voice spoke softly, "Understood."

The line went dead and Cassidy put the phone back into his pocket, eyes fixed on the face, suspended in the tank before him. It was then that he heard it, a faint gasp behind him. He turned with a start, muscles tense and at the ready.

Light glinted off of a pair of thin, wire glasses. Brown eyes widened behind the frames, and Cassidy's features hardened to a mask of stone.

"Mark," he whispered in genuine disappointment. "Such a pity."

The younger man drew back in fear and opened his mouth to scream, but the exclamation of terror never resounded. Cassidy pounced on him, like a seasoned predator, subduing Mark's flailing, panic-stricken attempts to flee.

"Can't have you ruining the game before it even gets started," Cassidy whispered with a silken purr, taking hold of the flailing young man's neck in a choke hold. The dark gleam in Cassidy's eyes was the last thing Mark saw before darkness encroach upon his consciousness, grabbing him and dragging him into its depths.

8o8o8

**AFTERWARD:** For some god-awful reason, this chapter was so hard to write. So, on top of getting over a cold and constantly looking after a demon-hybrid pit bull-hyena dog from hell (who I oh so love with all my heart), it took me so long to get this baby out. But I made it pretty long so I hope that helps.

**PS:** How BS was that damn Finale? Kyle's brother?! Seriously, ABCfam do better.

ANYWAY, I'd like to dedicate this fic to my peeps on my LJ, who encouraged me to continue with this fic even though I wasn't sure if I should. Thanks, guys, you rock!


	7. Chapter 7

**Title:** In and Out of Time (7/10)  
**Author:** wonderbread9  
**Rating:** PG-13 - R  
**Characters:** The current cast of Kyle XY  
**Pairings:** Kyle/Amanda, Kyle/Jessi, Implied Jessi/Josh, other pairings  
**Warnings:** It's going to get a bit strange...AU-ish, takes place directly after Life Support©, and will include some elements of what has happened **IN** Third Season. So, if you haven't yet seen Third Season, then be warned: there be spoilers ahead.

**Author's Note:** Bare with me, y'all. It's going to get a bit strange. Jesus H. Christ, this took me a long ass time to write. Whew! See the **AFTERWORD** for more details.

**Summary:** _"Kyle, let's just leave," Jessi urged. Her eyes met his, met the intense deep, swirling blue depths of his eyes with her own, but Kyle's lips pressed into a thin, firm line and he shook his head slowly, turning back to the injured Joshua on the floor._

"_No," he said firmly, his voice laced with steel. "I want answers."_

**8o8o8**

She woke to a room drenched in moonlight and empty of any other life save hers. Jessi sat up immediately, her head snapping this way and that in alarm and fear. Where was he? Where was Joshua? She sat up straighter, eyes peeling away every shadow and every inch of darkness in the room, her ears straining to hear even the slightest sound of breathing or a heartbeat, but she could see nothing, detect nothing and the panic that was rising in her gut grew all the more stronger.

He was nowhere to be found in the tiny, dark, cramped space, and she was somewhere lost in the middle of an industrial wasteland. Was she still in Seattle? Was she somewhere else altogether? She had no clue, and if she stepped outside right now, would she be staring at a familiar skyline or would she be seeing something else wholly different?

Jessi stood shakily, using the cot to catch her balance before standing upright and looking around. She felt so vulnerable, so weak, so mortal in that single moment, not being able to call upon her natural abilities to assist her. She couldn't feel the comforting flow of strength through her limps, couldn't summon the higher brain functions that would call forth the honing of her senses—her eyes, her ears, her sense of smell and taste and even her ability to hone the entirety of her skin to feel the slightest shift of the air currents around her. All lost to her at that moment so that she was nothing more than a normal, scared girl, and while at first, she had wanted nothing more than to be plain, regular and un-extraordinary, she had grown accustomed to her power, to her agility and her higher intelligence. To have all of that lost to her now was frightening, very, very frightening.

She took a deep breath, trying to quell the panicked trail her thoughts wanted to take—where was she? Would she ever get out? Would she ever get home? Would she ever see the Tragers? Kyle?—and looked around again, trying to orient herself. There had to be a way out…somewhere.

She walked slowly to one of the warehouse's boarded up windows and tried to pull away the ply wood that blocked her vision of the outside world, but no matter how much she pulled, the wood wouldn't budge and eventually Jessi gave up on that plan of action. She just didn't possess the physical strength to pry the wood from its place. She hissed in annoyance, stepped back and kicked the wall. It gave a groan of protest, but nothing more and silence settled over her once more.

"This is so not good," Jessi mumbled to herself in frustration. It was the understatement of the year, and she muttered a few choice obscenities under her breath as she turned in a wide circle, surveying the entirety of her "prison". There was no indication that Joshua had even been here. Nothing looked disturbed or out of place, but then again, the place was a dump and any indication of human life having _**ever**_ been in a place like this had been covered over by years and years' worth of disuse and grime.

Jessi uttered an annoyed sigh, nibbled her lip and turned on her heel to go back to the cot. It was then that she heard it: a grunt, coming from somewhere to her left, near the windows. She stopped, paused and held her breath, straining once again to hear over the night sounds. And she was rewarded with the grunt sounding again, as if someone were moving something with great effort only a short distance away from her, outside of the room. Her breathing quickened and she crossed the dirty floor of the warehouse office quietly, looking around for something hard and blunt. She picked up a fungus-eaten leg of a broken office chair and held it deftly in her hands, wielding it like an awkward sword. She eased her way over to the windows and found what her initial investigation had not: a door, so grime encrusted that it blended in with the wall around it.

She breathed deep, tried to still the panic of her heart and the trembling of her limps, positioning the chair leg over her shoulder like a batter would and waited. If it was Latnok, she would be ready. If it was Kyle, she'd apologize. If it was Joshua, she'd clobber him and try to get away. Either way, whatever, or whoever, was making their way to the door was getting ready to deal with a half-angry, half-scared teenager. Jessi just hoped she wouldn't miss.

The grunting grew louder, and heavy footsteps echoed throughout the quiet expanse of the room. Jessi held her breath and gripped her stick. A heavy weight settled on the door and pushed, but it didn't budge, just protested loudly like splinting wood under an immense pressure. The heavy weight settled on the door again, pushed. This time it gave a little. Jessi gripped her chair leg harder until her knuckles turned a ghostly white. She swallowed.

The heavy weight gave one last push, a more forceful one, and the door came open with a loud groan. All Jessi saw was a head lean through the threshold before she was swinging wildly.

There was a shout. The chair leg met the wall with a jarring force that reverberated through Jessi's arms. A strong arm circled her waist. The chair leg was wrestled from her grip and she was carried bodily to the cot and dumped unceremoniously on it before she knew what happened. She looked up and met Joshua's dangerously angry gaze. He was breathing hard and gripping the stick in his hand like he meant to do her harm. Jessi thrust her chin forward, defiance burning in her eyes.

It was a tense few moments; their eyes were locked and Joshua's jaw clenched causing his neck to bulge and a vein to twitch incessantly at his temple. He breathed; she breathed, and then he looked away, breaking the spell.

"I got you food," he growled, going back to the fallen bag of groceries that he'd dropped ducking her hastily planned assault. Jessi watched him like a caged animal, eyes still burning anger. He stooped to pick up the fruits that had escaped from the grocery bag and rolled a little ways across the floor. But it was as he was reaching for a stray orange that Jessi looked up and saw the door was still opened wide. Thoughts flew across her mind as she glanced from Joshua's crouched figure and back to the door.

She breathed.

Her muscles tensed, and time seemed to slow to a standstill.

And then she was up, moving, as lightning quick as she possibly could, bolting towards the door. Joshua yelled and reached for her, but when his hand tried to grasp her wrist and jerk her back, it closed on empty air. Instinct drove her, fear pushed her and adrenaline sent her rushing down the rickety steps of the abandoned, rotting warehouse like the devil himself was on her trail. She ran, feeling her heart beating wildly in her chest, her breath wheezing from her lungs and her muscles screaming. She came to the last few steps of the stairwell and leaped, hearing the thundering, heavy boots of Joshua as he chased after her.

She exploded out of a doorway, slamming open the old, rusting exit and bolting between rows and rows of conveyor belts, some still with old car parts hanging from their chains like rotted corpses of steel and wires. She could see moonlight trickling in faintly from dirt encrusted windows and could see, just up a head, the faint outline of a door.

"Jessi!" came Joshua's shout from behind. Fear leapt into her throat. Adrenaline pumped through her veins. She could hear him and when she glanced back, saw him barreling like a freight train towards her. She gave a cry of alarm, turned back towards the doors and prayed that they would open.

She had to keep going. She had to get away. She had to—

Her hands met resistance, but the force of her body slamming into the ancient slab of metal thrust it open with a raw, torturous sound that left her wincing. The cool rush of evening air was a shock to her skin and the wave of night sounds that crashed over her senses and nearly overloaded them was a joy to feel. Her mind immediately sprang to action and she could feel the minute pulse of electric pulses run faster and faster and faster from every nerve-ending in her body, straight to her brain. She felt a surge of power in her limps that filled her desperate muscles and nearly made her cry out in triumph. She could feel the shift and sway of air currents around her as she cut through the thin veil of molecules and particles that floated invisible and unseen in the air. She could taste a far off rainstorm only miles out from Seattle with her tongue. If she looked up, she could cut through the pollution in the air with her eyes and see the stars.

But most importantly, she could feel the wave, the pulse and the energy, even from such a great distance, of the one person on the planet that mattered more to her than life itself: Kyle. In her mind's eye, she could see him; she could feel the air of indecision around him as he stood on a street corner, looking this way and that, face creased in a troubled, puzzled frown.

Had Joshua been right? Had her disappearance truly spurred Kyle away from his family, away from his home, away from…Amanda, all for her? Was he out there looking for her even now, as she escaped and ran full tilt towards him?

She wanted to laugh out loud, scream to the night air that she was free, but she knew that this freedom could be taken away. She knew from past experiences that freedom was an ephemeral thing. Danger was still behind her, Joshua still lurked and she had a—

There was a jerk on her right hand that jarred her forward abruptly before jerking her back and making her breath catch in her throat. She was tugged, spun and as the world reeled around her, she caught from the corner of her eye, the familiar face of a war torn veteran. Joshua's piercing brown eyes chilled her to the bone. She balled up a fist, swung swiftly and connected with soft flesh. Joshua uttered a muffled cry of pain before Jessi kneed him, hard, in the gut. He went down, but did not release her.

"Let me go," Jessi growled, angrily, reaching to pry his fingers from her wrist.

"Not on your life," Joshua growled back in pain. She pulled; he jerked her forward and she landed on all fours in front of him. She had only a split second to gasp as Joshua's free hand immediately flew to his wrist—

_She looked up, could see the cold pinpricks of stars watching in their far, distant places, and formed one single thought in her mind that she hoped and prayed would get sent:_

—Joshua pressed a button on the small watch that was strapped securely to his skin—

_KYLE_

—and he and Jessi disappeared with only the disturbance of once still air and packed earth the only tell-tale of their being there.

**8o8o8**

The night wind brought whispers of animal sounds and insects' song to Kyle's ears as he stood underneath the glaring light of a street lamp, on the corner of some Seattle street, hoping that something, anything, would show him which way to go or what to do. He was lost, but not in the sense of direction—he knew that if he tweaked his vision just so, he could see his own fading heat signature of where he had come from. He was lost because nothing in his highly, advanced brain could tell him, map out logically in his head, where he should begin in finding Jessi. When Amanda had been taken, finding her—while it took some doing, and with Jessi's help (Kyle felt a pang at that)—had not been as difficult as finding Jessi was _**now**_. He had—at that time—been given a clue, a subtle hint of Amanda's whereabouts.

But here…

Now…

There was no innocuous phone left behind with a sinister image embedded within. When the strange man took Jessi, he'd left nothing but empty air behind and Kyle's shattered hope that maybe life was going to return to some semblance of normal. But no, it just got stranger and stranger—first Jessi and then Josh—and with Jessi gone there was no one to buffer that strangeness against, no one to be a constant in his life that didn't change, no matter the swaying of life's tides. Kyle stood at street's edge, blue eyes combing the darkness as cars drove past and random passersby avoided his strange, still figure on the sidewalk. The night wore on, but like a cruel mistress, revealed none of its secrets to him, and he knew couldn't stand on the corner forever like a human statue for the world to see and gawk at. He had to move, he had to do something, but it felt like there was nothing he _**could**_ do.

He could hear Lori's words echo at the back of his mind. He could see Amanda's confused, angry, hurt stare as he rushed away from the hospital. He could see Josh's still prone form in the hospital bed and not know, for once in his short existence, how to fix the monumentous problem. All these puzzles, the huge, chaotic conundrum that his life had become, swirled in his mind like a dizzying topsy-turvy whirl and there was no one here to help him put it to rights, no one to understand or help him begin to put the pieces back together. He couldn't talk to Nicole; she was worried about Josh, and Steven and Andy and Lori too.

He couldn't risk them in this. His only recourse was to turn on his heel and go back, back to the place where all this started. He had to find the quiet spot that Jessi had sought out for solitude. He had to search every blade of grass, every disturbed leaf and wind-tossed shrub. Nothing would go untouched, uninvestigated or overlooked.

And maybe…

Just maybe…

He'd find a clue. He'd have a hint. Something, anything to bring order and sense to a world that suddenly become much stranger and much scarier than he could have ever possibly imagined. He had to—

And then he felt it, an overwhelming sense of danger, fear, panic and hope crash over him like a tidal wave. The feeling was intense and his eyes immediately flew to the sky, to the stars, where his vision shifted and the world went sideways for a split second—

_KYLE_

—before the world returned to rights again and he could catch his breath. Somewhere, in this city, Jessi was calling his name. Somewhere, her essence was reaching out to his. He could feel it, in that split second, just like a few days ago, when the strange man took her. And, just like before, power surged in his muscles and his legs and feet propelled him forward.

He knew where to go.

He knew where to find her.

**8o8o8**

The world around her was nearly empty when Amanda stepped outside of the hospital. The only souls that were wandering the hospital grounds were night nurses and residents who were catching a breath of fresh air much like her. Amanda breathed deep and let out a huge gust of air before looking left and right, seeking out the white BMW that was her mother's automobile, hoping against hope that somehow her mother could magically appear within the span of the few moments that she'd called her. She knew it was a false hope, but that didn't stop her from being disappointed when she didn't see the familiar, sleek vehicle pull up to the curb or her mother's stern, but much welcomed face peeking from the driver's window. Amanda sighed, shoved her hands deep in her pockets and prepared herself for a long wait.

It would've been safer waiting for her mother within the walls of the hospital, but for some reason she had a feeling that she had overstayed her welcome, even if it was a silly feeling to have. After all, the Tragers could use all the support they could get at this time of need, but for some reason, she just felt like an outsider looking in on a family unit that shared so many experiences and secrets that it was just too intrusive for her to stick around. She knew that it all somehow dealt with Kyle and Jessi, but she just didn't know how and the suspense of ever finding out was killing her. Even so, she knew that blowing up at Kyle like she'd _**been**_ doing for the last few days was not winning her any brownie points in the 'Kyle-eventually-confiding-in-her' department. It was just that any mention of Jessi immediately set her on edge and ever since she'd walked in on Kyle and Jessi kissing, she'd been unwillingly tossed on a swinging, emotional pendulum of 'should-I-be-with-Kyle-should-I-let-him-go'; it was tiring and exhausting and making her all the more cranky and unpleasant to be with.

She knew that Kyle wasn't like Charlie and that what he had done probably had a good explanation, but 'good explanations' aside, she couldn't believe that he would betray her like that, no matter what his reasons and it was that betrayal that kept her from just biting the bullet and telling him that she so desperately wanted him back and wanted them to return to what semblance of normalcy they'd had before Jessi had ever come along.

"Penny for your thoughts?" came the inquisitive question from behind. Amanda gave a start and turned, her eyes settling on a scruffy looking young man. He was clearly not a doctor with the growth of five o'clock shadow adorning his chin and the mischievous glint to his brown eyes. He looked a few years older than her, probably a college freshman, but he was smiling and didn't seem at all threatening. Then again, the world as she had come to know it was not always as it seemed.

"Why would you care?" she asked, cautiously. The young man's smile never dimmed and he came to stand beside her, hands shoved deeply in his pockets.

"You just looked like you were in deep thought," the young man replied and shrugged. "I figure…somebody you care about's here in the hospital and you're worried."

Amanda allowed a small smile to split her lips. "Something like that."

"So." The young man looked thoughtful. "Who is it?"

"Who's what?" Amanda asked, frowning. The young man grinned.

"Who's in the hospital?" he clarified. Amanda's small smile turned embarrassed.

"Right," she replied, her cheeks turning pink. "A friend. He got hurt pretty badly and the doctor's have him recovering up there."

"Well," the young began in an apologetic tone, "sorry to hear that. I hope he feels better."

"Thanks," Amanda replied, another smile spreading across her lips. "And you? Who are you here for?"

"My dad," the young man explained matter-of-factly. "He got into a minor scrape. He's just getting patched up right now."

"Oh," Amanda said, at a loss. "I hope he does better next time."

"I do too," the young man replied with a twinkle in his eye. "I'm sorry, I never got your name. Mine's Nathaniel. Nathaniel Harrison, but most people call me 'Nate'."

Amanda held out her hand. "Amanda. Amanda Bloom, and it's nice to meet you, Nate."

"Pleasure's all mine," he replied, flirtatiously, causing another rush of color to darken Amanda's cheeks. He took her hand, shook it warmly and held it for a few seconds more before releasing it. "I hope to see you around. Well…Not the hospital."

"I guess so," Amanda replied, glancing away quickly from the intensity of Nate's dark, dark brown eyes. She missed the wicked smile that cut across his features, and when she looked up, he was already turning towards the hospital with a purposeful look on his face.

"Well, I gotta go," he replied, "but I really, really do hope I see you around." He winked and Amanda grinned before he left, walking back into the hospital and leaving Amanda to her solitude once more.

_That was interesting_, Amanda thought, feeling the lingering warmth of Nate's hand along her palm. She looked at her palm for a moment, feeling a grin want to tug at her lips, but she beat the feeling back. She didn't have time to devote her attention to some random guy that thought she was cute. There was the issue of Kyle to deal with and an ailing Josh in the hospital and the fact that Kyle was out God-only-knew-where in the city with, or trying to find, Jessi. Amanda uttered a sigh of long suffering and looked for her mother, who was still nowhere to be seen.

Amanda pulled her hands from her pockets and crossed her arms over her chest as a night breeze blew by and the sound of crickets reached her ears.

Without warning, her vision immediately went black as a bag was hastily jerked over her head and the world went topsy-turvy as someone grabbed her around her arms and hoisted her in the air. She uttered a terrified scream, kicked and fought as adrenaline pumped through her and fear washed over her.

There was a muffled cry of pain as her flailing heel landed in soft flesh, but nothing more. She felt a sharp pain at the back of her neck and then her world went dark.

**8o8o8**

It felt like someone had sucker punched her in the gut and Jessi landed with a painful thud on the hard, dirty floor of the warehouse office as she and Joshua materialized out of thin air. She coughed, gagging on stomach bile that didn't want to erupt, as Joshua swiftly crossed the expanse of the office and roughly slammed the office's door shut. It groaned, shook then stilled, and he turned back to her with a murderous glint in his eye.

"What the _**hell**_ did you think you were doing?" Joshua growled. Jessi coughed one last time and struggled to stand.

"Getting away from you," she gasped as a wash of dizziness overcame her and nearly sent her to the floor again. Joshua crossed the room quickly and tried gathering her in his arms, but she shoved him away. Instead, she leaned on the room's dilapidated desk for support.

"You could've ruined everything," Joshua hissed angrily. "Don't you get that? The future is at stake and you want to run off playing "Rambina". If something had gone wrong, where would I have been then? You're essential, Jessi."

"You don't have a right to keep me," Jessi hissed back, just as angry. "I'm not your prisoner, and your future doesn't concern me."

"It concerns everybody," Joshua roared suddenly. "Don't you get it?! Don't you see?! I'm trying to save everyone!"

"And if my disappearance still makes your future happen?" Jessi snarled. "What then? You said I disappeared _**after**_ Kyle told Amanda everything. Well, doesn't this kidnapping still line up with me leaving?"

"No, no, it doesn't," Joshua protested. "And I'm not going to argue the point with you anymore. Next time you try a stunt like that, I'm tying you up and keeping you tied up until all of this is over."

"You can't—"

The sound of metal suddenly twisting like an animal being ripped apart filled the air and Joshua whirled, a gun almost magically appearing in his hand. He turned and pointed it at the door, his body tense and his senses strained.

"What did you do?" he asked in a tense whisper, but Jessi said nothing, her eyes trained on the door. The twisting sound came again, louder this time, and echoed back and forth around them.

"Someone's here," Joshua whispered, stepping away from the door and reaching for Jessi. He grabbed her and jerked her close, his grip nearly bone crushing.

"You're hurting me," Jessi hissed in pain, wishing once again that she had her strength back. Any other time, she would've dropped a guy Joshua's size without breaking a sweat, but here and now, she was helpless to do much of anything. She was just a small figured girl to Joshua's battle hardened prowess.

The older man said nothing, only stood like a statue with the gun pointed at the door. He breathed and Jessi felt her heart beating wildly in her chest. For a few seconds, silence fell over the world around them and Jessi began to think that maybe she'd imagined the twisting sound of metal. Maybe it had just been wishful thinking. Maybe it was just the old bones of this place finally giving way in some distant part of the building and the both of them—Jessi and Joshua—were over reacting. Maybe…

Maybe…

But maybe didn't explain the door suddenly flying open with a loud bang and Kyle standing there, his blue eyes blazing in the darkness, his chest heaving and his fists clenched at his sides. For a split second, Jessi thought it was a dream. That somehow, Joshua had knocked her unconscious and this was just her mind's attempt at making her feel better. But then Kyle spoke, and she knew then that this was no dream:

"Jessi, are you alright?"

She nodded slowly, her eyes wide with surprise. Joshua's gun shook and Jessi could feel the slight tremble rush through the older man's tall frame. Was it fear? Was it anger? She couldn't tell, but when looked at him, she saw his jaw clench shut so tightly that it looked like it was going to break and the fire suddenly igniting in his eyes.

And that was when she remembered: dear God, the dampening field!

"Kyle, get out!" she shouted before Joshua pushed her and she landed on the cot with a cry of alarm. She looked up quickly and saw Joshua rushing at Kyle with the force of a freight train, barreling down on the teenage boy with every ounce of anger, hurt and pain that lay coiled in every muscle and cell of his body; it was frightening to see: Kyle attempting to defend himself with the superhuman strength that he'd always trusted his body to have and Joshua tearing down that feeble belief with a swift punch to Kyle's jaw that sent the boy sprawling to the ground.

"I should kill you right now," Joshua growled, venomous rage lacing every word he spoke. "I should destroy you before you become a danger to us all. I should stop you before there's nothing left but smoking ashes and devastation."

Kyle looked up and met his burning gaze, pain throbbing at his jaw and confusion clouding his thoughts. How had this man blocked his punches? How had this man felled Kyle with one simple punch? It was unfathomable, impossible, but then again, the man had managed to kidnap Jessi. And what, exactly, was this man going on about?

"I don't understand what's going on," Kyle began, getting unsteadily to his feet, "but you are _**going**_ to let Jessi go."

The man chuckled darkly. "Not on your life."

And rushed at Kyle again, fists at the ready, and all Kyle could do was duck and dodge as best he could, not understanding how his strength had failed him. How he had suddenly become—in the span of a few seconds—a mere, mortal teenaged boy. What was going on?

Jessi watched the two of them scuffle, Kyle taking hit after hit from Joshua's unrelenting assault, but she couldn't just let Kyle lose. She couldn't let Joshua take out his anger on a Kyle that had yet to do the things that the older man accused him of. Jessi immediately rose from the cot, shifting out of the way of the two scuffling fighters and looking around for anything that could possibly end this fight once and for all. She looked left and then right, finally spotting the fungus eaten chair leg that she had used early, and immediately went for it, ducking a wildly aimed punched from Joshua and a flailing block from Kyle. She grabbed the chair leg with sure fingers, turned and rushed over to where Joshua was bent over a heaving, bloodied Kyle, his fist pulled back to deliver a final blow.

"Joshua!" Jessi shouted. The man immediately turned to her call and was met with a punishing blow from the chair leg that slammed into his jaw with a sickening, wet crunch that sent him sprawling to the floor. Joshua groaned and struggled to move, but by that time, Jessi had the chair leg pressed painfully into his cheek, holding him against the dirty, warehouse floor.

"You alright, Kyle?" she asked, and Kyle staggered to his feet, gingerly touching his bloodied lip and rapidly swelling eye.

"Fine," he struggled out, rotating his jaw to get some feeling back into it. He'd never experienced pain quite like this before, and was still trying to fathom why his healing ability wasn't working. What was going on here? Jessi gave him the once over despite his answer, making sure that he was fine. When she was satisfied, she turned back to a heavily breathing Joshua, who was struggling to get up from the floor. She pressed the chair leg harder into his jaw.

"That's enough, Jessi," Kyle said, taking hold of her shoulder and tugging on her slightly. She stared from him to the older man on the floor and back again before nodding reluctantly and stepping back, retreating to a safe distance, after pressing her chair leg into Joshua's cheek one last time. Joshua rolled over into a seated position, and glared hatefully at Kyle.

"You've ruined it, Jessi," Joshua growled from the floor. "You've ruined everything."

"No, no, that's not true," Jessi growled back, gripping the chair leg tighter until her knuckles turned white. "You don't know anything."

"Don't I?" Joshua hissed.

"Jessi, what is he talking about?" Kyle asked, alarm and confusion coloring his tone. She turned to him, her look pleading.

"Kyle, let's just leave," Jessi begged urgently. Her eyes met his, met the intense deep, swirling blue depths of his eyes with her own, but Kyle's lips pressed into a thin, firm line and he shook his head slowly, turning back to the injured Joshua on the floor.

"No," he said firmly, his voice laced with steel. "I want answers." He advanced on Joshua and the other's breathing grew ragged, fire burning in his eyes.

"Why did you take Jessi?" Kyle questioned, but Joshua only laughed a mirthless, pain-filled sound, his eyes still burning hatred for the young man before him that had not yet turned into a monster.

"Answer me!" Kyle cried forcefully, but the only answer he got was Joshua's growl and a contemptuous shot of spit at his feet.

"I don't owe you anything," Joshua hissed.

Kyle could feel anger bubbling inside him like the raging activity of a volcano ready to burst and spew forth lava. His fists clenched and unclenched at his sides and he could feel the muscles of his legs tract and contract as he moved forward, body tense, jaw taut and straining, wanting very much in that moment to—

"He said he did it to save the world," came Jessi's voice from behind. Kyle's chest constricted, tightened and then relaxed at the faltering, uncertain tone of her voice. Joshua's eyes widened in horror.

"Jessi, no," the older man protested.

"What?" Kyle asked, ignoring Joshua's protest, turning to Jessi with a puzzled look. "What are you talking about?"

Her brown eyes were shining and watery in the moonlight as her lips trembled and she struggled to speak.

"Jessi?" Kyle's breathing grew heavy, his heart beat speeding up quickly in anticipation. What had her kidnapper done? What had he said to her that would put her in such a state? Jessi hesitated for a moment longer, looking from Kyle to Joshua then back again before breaking down and finally saying, "Kyle, I'm so sorry."

The bottom dropped out from under him and panic swept aside any anger or fury that Kyle had felt a moment ago. He walked slowly to Jessi and held out his arms, his look one of nothing but concern.

"Jessi, what happened?"

"It's not what _**has**_ happened," she replied, quietly, "It's what's _**going **_to happen. Amanda—"

"Amanda," Kyle cut in, eyes going suddenly very wide in alarm. "What's going to happen to Amanda? Jessi, you have to tell me."

"Don't do this, Jessi," Joshua begged, struggling to stand. "Don't. You'll ruin everything. Everything."

Jessi looked from one to the other, trembling, eyes shining with tears, her mouth opening and closing in indecision.

"Jessi, look at me," Kyle commanded gently, taking her shoulders in his hands and forcing her vision to see him and only him. "Tell me what's going to happen. Tell me everything."

"You're going to destroy the world, Kyle," she replied, quietly. "You're going to destroy everything."

Kyle's face drained of all color.

"But I would never do that," he said in disbelief. "I would never—"

"It was Latnok," Jessi continued as if she hadn't heard him. "It _**will be**_ Latnok. They're going to kill Amanda."

"What?" Kyle whispered in horror. "Latnok—"

He felt like he'd been sucker punched in the gut, like all the oxygen in the room had suddenly been sucked away and he was left gasping, dying a slow, agonizing death. Amanda? Latnok was going to kill Amanda? How? Why? When?

His grip on Jessi's shoulders tightened and he voiced his panicked thoughts aloud. Jessi shook her head, hesitant, eyes darting back to Joshua one last time before saying, "A few days maybe. I don't know, but her life is in danger. He told me that they killed her, will kill her, and that you'll destroy the world because of it."

"How could he know that?" Kyle protested. "How could he possibly know that?"

"He says he's from the future," Jessi replied with a helpless shrug. "He's says he came back to stop it all from happening."

"But time travel is impossible," Kyle said, more to himself than aloud. He looked up, met Jessi's unwavering gaze again. "Jessi…You know I would never do that."

"Never say never," Joshua retorted bitterly behind them. "You did, you will. You'll destroy everything."

Kyle turned to him, fiery determination igniting his eyes. "No, I won't. I wouldn't."

"Sure," Joshua mocked, bitterly. "Sure, you wouldn't because you're Kyle and you can fix everything. You can help everyone. You can do everything. You can make decisions for other people when they can't make decisions for themselves. Isn't that right?"

"I don't know who you are," Kyle replied vehemently, "but you don't know me."

"Sure I do." Joshua smirked in an angry, vicious sort of way. "Latnok kills Amanda—"

"No!" Kyle protested, but Joshua continued undeterred.

"Cassidy kills Amanda—"

"Joshua, stop it," Jessi cut in sharply, advancing on the older man, but his smirk only got wider as Kyle protested more violently, "No!"

"And you get _**pissed**_ off," Joshua growled, "and you destroy the world."

"I said stop it!" Jessi hissed, raising the chair leg threateningly. The older man exhaled a painful hiss through clenched teeth.

"Jessi, please," Kyle called quietly from behind. She turned quickly, lowering the chair leg and saw the devastated look that covered Kyle's features. She shook her head and went to him, wanting so desperately to touch him, but not sure if her touch could comfort the suddenly distraught young man.

"It's not true what he said," Jessi replied, her tone uncompromising. "I don't believe him and you shouldn't either. Besides, you know what may happen now, so we have a chance to stop it."

"Jessi—"

"No, Kyle, we have a chance to stop it," she interrupted in a firm voice. She turned back to Josh, tossing the chair leg to the ground and glaring at him.

"The future is only what we make of it," she said. "And we're going to make it different."

**8o8o8**

"Where is she?!" Nicole jumped with a start at the nearly hysterical demand. She turned and saw Carol Bloom coming towards her from down the hospital hallway, her face pinched in anger and fear.

"Where's my daughter?" Carol screeched when Nicole didn't answer.

"What are you talking about, Carol?" Stephen stepped in front of his puzzled wife, shielding her from Carol Bloom's barrage of emotion.

"Don't you "Carol" me, Trager," the woman hissed venomously, her body visibly trembling from the strain of holding back the full tumult of her emotions. The flickering light of hysterics glimmered in her blue eyes and she looked from Nicole to Stephen and then around them at Lori and the nurses and doctors that were passing their small group a long the hall.

"Where is Amanda?" Carol cried, her voice a watery struggle. "She was supposed to meet me outside. She was supposed to and now she's gone. Where is she?"

"She left a while ago," Nicole replied, puzzled, meeting Stephen's troubled gaze with her own. "We haven't seen her."

"You haven't seen her?" Carol echoed in disbelief. Her voice rose an octave. "You haven't seen her?!! My baby is out there somewhere and neither of you had the decency to make sure she was alright—?"

"No, hold on a minute—"

"Excuse me," came the sharp reprimand from a passing nurse, cutting off Stephen before he could begin his own tirade, "but either you all keep it down or I'm going to have to ask you to leave. There are _**patients**_ trying to _**recover**_ on this hall."

Carol Bloom turned a venomous glare on the nurse. "I don't care who's trying to recover on this hall! They've got my baby!"

"What?!" Stephen cried in disbelief. "Are you insane, Carol? We don't have Amanda anywhere."

"Oh, but I bet that _**boy **_does," she growled, her voice dripping with disdain. "I knew I should've never let her consort with you people, especially Kyle. Now, she's God-only-knows-where!"

"Ma'am, I am going to have to ask you to leave," the nurse tried again, trying to keep the hysterical Carol Bloom from getting any louder. She signaled to two hospital security guards, who marched over immediately with equal glares of no-nonsense.

Carol glared at the nurse, at the security guards and finally aimed a heated, wrathful glare at the Tragers.

"If my daughter isn't home by nine o'clock tonight," Carol hissed. "There is going to be _**hell **_to pay." Then turned on her heel and marched from the waiting area with the two guards on her heels. The nurse smiled at the apologetically before starting after the guards and making sure that Carol Bloom was off hospital grounds.

"What the hell was that all about?" Stephen asked his wife, puzzledly watching the retreating nurse's back.

"I don't know," Nicole started, and turned to Lori who was fixing both of her parents with an equal stare of concern, "but something's clearly happened to Amanda." Nicole went over to Lori and looked her daughter square in the eye.

"Do you know anything about this?" She asked and Lori shrugged helplessly.

"I don't know anything," she replied, truthfully. She turned to her father who was wearing a skeptical look. "I'm serious. I talked to Kyle. That was it."

"And where is he now?" Stephen asked in a stern voice. Lori shut her mouth and looked away.

"Lori," Stephen said warningly.

"I told him to go after Jessi," Lori mumbled under her breath.

"What?" Nicole asked, hoping that she hadn't heard what she thought she had.

"I told him to go after Jessi," Lori said again, louder this time. At both her parents' long-suffering looks, she quickly added, "Well, no one else would be able to do it. Kyle is Jessi's only hope."

"And if this were Latnok's doing?" Stephen asked severely. "What if Kyle is in just as much danger as Jessi? Now, we don't know what's happening either of them! And if Amanda had heard? She's in danger too. Probably gone after him!"

"I'm sorry," Lori protested, looking back and forth between them. "I just want Jessi home."

"Okay, okay," Nicole said in a calming placating tone. "Okay, Stephen, you stay here and take care of Josh and Andy. I'm going to take Lori—"

"Mom, I said I was sorry," Lori protested again. Nicole held up her hands in a surrendering gesture.

"I know, Lori," she replied firmly. "But I'd feel safer if you were home and I could watch you. We don't know what's going on yet. So, I'm taking you home. Get your things."

Lori rolled her eyes and stood, grabbing her coat and purse as Nicole turned to Stephen and said to him, "Please be careful. Watch Josh and Andy, and if anything changes—"

"I'll call," Stephen replied, gathering his wife in a tight embrace and kissing her hard on the forehead. "You be careful too."

"I will," Nicole said, gathering her own coat and purse and leaving the hospital waiting area with Lori in tow. The ride home was uneventful with a tense silence between mother and daughter. Nicole hadn't wanted to leave Josh or Stephen alone at the hospital, and she certainly didn't want to take Lori away from her younger brother, but what with Jessi disappearing, Josh being sick and now Kyle _**and**_ Amanda, she needed to be in a place where there was hardly any distraction, a place where she could think everything out logically and come up with a plan.

But it was as she was pulling into the drive way of her family's home that two things happened at once. First Lori turned to her and protested loudly, "I wasn't trying to get anyone hurt, Mom. I was just trying to help. Kyle's the only one that can find and save Jessi, and you know it. So, if I'm grounded, fine. Just as long as Jessi comes home."

It was as Nicole was turning to her, a stern retort rising in her throat, that the second thing happened. A bloodied, battered hand slammed against the driver side window causing both Nicole and Lori to scream in terror and surprise.

"Oh my god, Mom," Lori screeched, "you hit someone!"

"Just-Just calm down," Nicole told her daughter, her voice trembling. Her heart was beating wildly and her adrenaline was pumping and she was quite close to hysterics herself. She took a deep breath and slowly opened the car door.

There sprawled in a groaning, bloodied heap was Mark, Lori's boyfriend.

Lori, looking over her mother's shoulder, hissed in disbelief. "Oh dear God."

**8o8o8**

He hoped he found somewhere safe.

He wanted to be somewhere safe, but he couldn't pull his mind back from the nightmare of Cassidy's hands closing around his throat and the painful punches and kicks that were aimed at his unprotected body. And in the back, floating in a tank of glowing pink water, was a figure that looked remarkably like someone he knew. Someone that he had thought—while pretty damn smart for the average bear—was a normal kid like he had been. Boy, was he ever wrong.

Mark woke with a shudder and sigh to the gentle ministrations of a soft hand smoothing back the skin of his scalp and the smell of orange and tangerine shower soap. He would've smiled, but even thinking about the action hurt his already throbbing muscles. So, he settled for opening his eyes and being greeted with the smiling face of Lori.

"Lori," he whispered, and paid for that simple action with a sharp jolt of pain rushing to his brain.

"Shh," she whispered, kissing his forehead. "It's okay. Everything's going to be okay."

Mark shut his eyes, feeling himself want to float back a long the soothing rivers of unconsciousness, where darkness promised him the sweet rest of peace: no dreams, no nightmares, just blissful silence. Blissful ignor—

His eyes snapped open and lifted himself up to a sitting position whose movements sent shockwave after shockwave of pain through his system, threatening to undue him. But before he could allow darkness to take him, he choked out, "Cassidy…Latnok…hurt Kyle…Amanda…kidnapped."

And then he was collapsing in on himself, exhausted. Lori stared at his unconscious form in shock.

"Oh crap," she muttered to herself as her mother came in bearing a bowl full of water and washcloths.

"What is it?" Nicole asked, seeing the troubled look that covered Lori's face, and feeling the familiar rise of panic that had been threatening to overtake her all evening.

"I think Mark's a member of Latnok," Lori replied.

"What?" Nicole cried in alarm.

"And…they've kidnapped Amanda."

Nicole froze, her eyes going wide.

"Oh crap."

**8o8o8**

It was the soft whisper of her name that made Andy turn, meeting Josh's piercing gaze from where he lay across the room on his hospital bed. She swallowed, feeling a crushing weight settle upon her chest, and rose from the chair that one of the nurses had brought in earlier for her to sit in and keep watch. She approached Josh's bed slowly, memories surfacing quickly of only a few short hours ago and Josh's mental freak out. She didn't know what to make of it, what to make of him at that moment, and so desperately wanted answers.

"You okay?" she asked softly, coming to sit beside him and run her fingers lightly through his hair. He couldn't move much—the hospital staff placed restraints on him so that he couldn't escape again—but she could tell by the way he closed his eyes and the way his body stilled for the one second that her touch had an effect on him. She smiled slightly and met his gaze when his eyes opened and he stared at her intensely.

"Help me," he asked, his voice firm. She frowned.

"Do you need food?" she asked, puzzled. "Water?" She rose to fetch him the glass of water that the nurse had brought him and set on his tray, but froze when he called her name.

"Andy, no!" he protested and struggled to sit up. The restraints tightened and slumped back down on his bed with a low growl of frustration.

"What is it?" she asked, feeling fear rise once again through her body. "What's wrong, Josh?"

"Everything," Josh growled, shaking his head furiously. "Everything is wrong, and I have to fix it, but I can't…I can't…" He lifted one of his arms and shook it; the restraint gave a dull metal ring. "Please, Andy, help me."

"Josh, you know that I can't _**do**_ that," she replied, her voice tearful. "You'll get in trouble. I'll get in trouble and I won't be able to see you. They'll kick me out. Not to mention what my Moms'll do if they find out."

"This is much bigger than that!" He hissed loudly, winced at the look of hurt that crossed her features and repeated much softer, "This is much bigger than that. Please, Andy, you don't understand."

"You're right," she growled, anger and fear forming a deadly mixture in her mind, "I don't understand. I don't understand why my boyfriend is having a major freak out and why his family is keeping secrets from me. I don't understand why you want to me to help you do something so damn illegal without giving me some kind of answer that isn't vague and all mysterious. Seriously, it was cute in the beginning. The mysteriousness gave you an edge, but now…now…Josh, I don't think I—"

"You want answers?" Josh interrupted, lifting himself up once more from his bed, straining against the restraints that bound him. "Well, I can't give them to you right now, Andy. I can't tell you that everything is going to be alright. But what I can tell you is that if you help me, if you take these things off of me, I can make damn sure that everything turns out okay."

"How?" Andy asked, pursing her lips. "How?"

"By changing the future," Josh replied simply. Andy looked away from him and pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh, and for a moment, Josh thought that she wouldn't help, that she would turn away and leave, but no… Any sighed one last time, looked up—and with determination burning in her eyes—walked over to bed and started to take apart the restraints.

"I am so going to be dead for this," she muttered to herself. When he didn't respond, Andy looked up and met Josh's serious gaze.

"Not if I can help it," he replied.

_**8o8o8**_

**AFTERWORD:** I've decided that once _**"In and Out of Time" **_is complete, the sequel of sorts that I have planned will become my version of a 'Kyle XY: Fourth Season', which means I'll have to map it out much farther than what I've got so far and tweak the ending of this story to match up with the ending from Third Season. I've got my work cut-out for me, but dadburnit! IT SHALL BE DONE!!!!! :3


	8. Chapter 8

**Title:** In and Out of Time (8/10)  
**Author:** wonderbread9  
**Rating:** PG-13 - R  
**Characters:** The current cast of Kyle XY  
**Pairings:** Kyle/Amanda, Kyle/Jessi, Implied Jessi/Josh, other pairings  
**Warnings:** It's going to get a bit strange...AU-ish, takes place directly after Life Support©, and will include some elements of what has happened **IN** Third Season. So, if you haven't yet seen Third Season, then be warned: there be spoilers ahead.

**Author's Note:** Bare with me, y'all. It's going to get a bit strange. Sorry for the long wait!!!

**Summary:** _Somewhere in this city, there was a life he needed to save._

**80808**

The sound of Mark's labored breathing was the only source of distraction that came to Lori's worried ears as she sat beside her bedroom window and looked out on a night-drenched Seattle that was more strange and more dangerous than she had ever imagined possible. She had always grown up with a specific set of certainties in life: she was going to grow-up, she was going to make lots of money someway somehow and her existence was going to follow along a path, more or less, like everyone else; she was going to disappear into the crowd, a face among faces with nothing weird, strange or freaky happening to disrupt her existence. Until Kyle came, until Jessi came, and brought with them a whole slew of problems that Lori was—in no way, shape or form—prepared for. And, now she sat beside her bedroom window, taking stock of her life and wondering when everything went so horribly wrong.

Mark groaned in his sleep, and Lori looked back and sighed. They'd been able to clean up the worst of his injuries, but Mark still looked like someone had taken a sledgehammer and had a field day with his face. His eyes were swollen shut, his lip was busted in more than one place and bruises were blossoming along every inch of his skin. She cared about him, deeply, and it hurt her to see him look so terrible, so vulnerable, when all she wanted was for him to spring up from his sleep, magically repaired and as snarky and wise-cracking as ever. But another part of her, one that she didn't even want to entertain, felt a niggling of justification. He'd lied to her, had kept secrets from her and for all she knew, could be using her to spy on Kyle. Mark was Latnok, and Latnok was the enemy, and everything that she had come to know about their relationship and trust about their relationship could be built on a lie.

Lori looked Mark over, saw that he was as fine as he could be under the circumstances and turned back to her window gazing. She saw, from the corner of her eye, Carol Bloom moving about in her home. The window was open, the blinds and curtains pulled back, allowing her to see everything, from Amanda's piano to the various pieces of expensive artwork that lined the walls. Lori peeked her head further out her own window, watching the older woman pace the expanse of her living room, back and forth, ringing her hands. Even though Carol Bloom could be one hard-ass of a woman, Lori felt sorry for her; Amanda was missing, possibly in danger of her life, and her own mother—the woman that swore to protect her from any harm—could do nothing, but sit and wait for the inevitable; which ever inevitability that would be.

It was times like these—time where indecision and worry was eating at her and frustration was building like a seething, frothing volcano—that Lori wished she could patch into Kyle's brain, sample some of that Kyle wisdom that made him such a rock to depend on when things got rough. But he was out, trying to find Jessi…on Lori's orders, and there was no way that she could get to him or contact him. She didn't even know if he was carrying his cell phone and, even if he were, she didn't know if it was even on. She blew a gust of air from her lips, balled her hands into tight, white fists and gritted her jaw, blinking back the tears of frustration that threatened to fall.

She just wanted things to be normal. She just wanted Josh to come home and be better and for Kyle and Jessi to be okay without the threat of some huge, shadow organization hovering over their shoulders for the rest of their lives, always having to be careful and never stepping out of line for fear that Latnok would see and try just that hard to stick the proverbial knife deeper. As if he could feel her distress, Mark groaned and Lori whirled, biting her lip, her nostrils flaring. He was listless in his dreams, a line of distress forming between his eye brows, his lips parting, mumbling something incoherent. She rose from her place by the window, went to him and pulled his free, un-bruised hand into her own.

"It'll be okay, Mark," she reassured, softly, but she didn't know who she was lying to more: to the very injured young man on her bed or to herself.

**80808**

The night covered their fleeting forms so that to the average observer they were shadows disappearing into shadows and nothing more. Kyle's breathing was ragged, more from the tumult of emotions running through him and not from any form of exertion. His thoughts were a jumble, his mind in a whirl, his heart thundering in his chest as his feet thundered against the concrete below him and his muscles sent him surging forward in a desperate race against time. He would've laughed at the irony of it if his humor were gripped by that kind of darkness.

There was no time. If Josh-Joshua-FutureJosh was right then Amanda's life was in danger, and with it, the fate of the entire world, and even Kyle was still having some trouble processing this. In FutureJosh's time, he—Kyle Trager—had destroyed the world. Because of Amanda's death, he destroyed millions of lives, disrupted countless many more and waged a war on those last few, resistant to his rule. It was impossible, it was unfathomable, but Kyle didn't want to test that theory; he didn't want to know what a world felt like without Amanda.

He didn't slow down.

He didn't stop to catch his breath.

He heard Jessi behind him, moving on soundless feet that almost seemed to glide on empty air when he looked back. Her gaze was focused, her brown eyes unwavering in the darkness; and it was them that he wished he could have her drive, her force of will, but the only thing he could feel was a gnawing ache in the pit of his soul and an overwhelming need to seek out Nicole's warm embrace. He did not know the name of his biological mother, never saw her face and Adam never revealed her identity, but Nicole was the closest thing he ever had to a maternal figure, and all he wanted was for her to be here and to make all of this go away. It was illogical, it was irrational; Kyle knew that Nicole didn't have a magical wand to wave and make the whole world return to some semblance of normalcy. But for once in his life, he wished that science wasn't the end all, and that the impossible could be possible and that someone out there could make everything better than the reality he was living now.

Kyle looked back, and Jessi was there; her eyes sought his in the darkness, locked—blue meeting intense brown—and Kyle felt the bottom drop out from underneath him. He breathed, air coming in and out of his lungs more ragged than ever, strange sensations playing up and down his spine. He turned away quickly, narrowly dodged a bus stop pole, but kept moving.

Somewhere in this city, there was a life he needed to save.

**80808**

She watched him, her eyes narrowing to calculated slits as she watched the way his body moved, the way his legs pounded the concrete and the way his arms moved back and forth to propel him forward. She watched the way he was breathing, watched the sweat that broke out over his forehead, and when he looked back and she met his sharp blue eyes with her dark, dark brown, she watched the strange emotions that danced like raging fires in those deep, azure depths. It left her breathless. Even with everything that was going on, the desperate race to beat the odds that they were undertaking, she surprised herself at feeling breathless, feeling her stomach do somersaults and jumping jacks in that split second of ocular contact. She tightened the fists that her hands were balled into, grit her jaw and pushed herself forward so that they were level, running nose to nose.

"We'll make it," she shouted to him as he narrowly missed a bus stop pole. He floundered for a second, but picked himself up and kept moving.

"We have to get there in time," he shouted back. There was a desperate edge to his voice. She glanced at him. In her mind, she could see the variables of his body—his weight, his height, his body mass and muscular development, all laid bare before her mind. She could calculate how long it would take his body to give out, how much in elevation his heart beat had rose in the last few seconds and even—if she focused hard enough—see the entropy of dying cells that were burned in the wake of his panic and anxiety. But despite all of this, she could not pierce to the heart of Kyle XY, she could not breach his defenses to reach the core of his being and reassure him:_ I'm here. I'm not going to leave. Everything is going to be alright._

All she could do was run beside him, and hope that that was enough.

**80808**

Nicole was not prepared for the two panting teenagers standing on her doorstep, eyes wild with panic and something else—a knowing perhaps? Of things to come and what might be? She shook the strange thoughts off and instead, stared wide-eyed at Kyle, who she'd actually expected to come back, unsuccessful from Lori's charge, and Jessi, who she thought would take much more than Kyle to bring home. She embraced them both, nevertheless, and ushered them quickly inside.

"Jessi?" She could not help the note of surprise that filled her voice or the tears that welled in her eyes. She'd thought, even for a split second since Jessi's disappearance, that maybe…Just maybe they would never…But she banished the thought quickly, and embraced the girl again, who gaze registered surprise as well, but excepted the hug greedily as if that's what she'd waited for someone to give to her her entire life.

"Kyle, I can't believe you did it," she said in awe, smiling at her adopted son. He didn't return it. His eyes were wide as saucers, his breathing still harsh. "What's wrong?"

"Amanda," was all he managed, and Nicole could feel the muscles of her face pull back in resignation.

"Kyle…she's…" Nicole struggled, and Kyle's eyes grew wider still, fear and another unreadable emotion dawning in their depths. "She's missing…"

"Missing?" His voice was breathless and formed the word on lips that seemed unwilling to form it at all. Nicole nodded, glanced from Jessi to Kyle and back again. Jessi was watching Kyle like a hawk.

"Mark's here," Nicole began, and both teens glanced at her in puzzlement. Nicole hurried to finish, "and he told us—or tried to tell us—that Latnok has kidnapped Amanda—"

She did not miss the look that Jessi and Kyle shot each other, nor the fear that seemed palpable between the two, growing even more so.

"How would he know?" Kyle turned to Jessi, but she shrugged shaking her head. They both turned to Nicole.

"What's going on?" Nicole asked, and applauded herself that she managed to sound as stern as she did when all she really felt was a growing sense of dread and the first touch of panic trying to wedge itself into her brain. She wanted to stay calm, needed to stay calm. This was no time to get hysterical.

"He's right," Jessi replied, slowly. "I don't know how he knows, but…he's right. We have to find out where Amanda is. We have to get to her before something terrible happens."

"Terrible?" Nicole's eyes widened when Kyle's face turned grim.

"We have to get to Latnok," the dark haired boy replied, his voice laced with steel.

**80808**

His legs felt heavy and his body laden with dread, but Josh knew that what he was feeling now was nothing in comparison to what he would feel if he didn't keep moving, didn't keep placing one foot in front of the other, pushing himself forward. Everything in existence depended on him, depended on him making it, depending on him getting there in time and stopping it, stopping it all from happening. He pushed aside bushes and tree branches, keeping to the shadows. The clothes that he wore were much too big, held up precariously by the belt of the security guard that he'd felled in on swift blow, one crack over the bed with a bed pan and the big man had gone down without so much as a grunt. The last sight that Josh had saw was Andy, looking out at his escape from his room window, her hand pressed to the glass and even from that distance, he looked up and saw tears running down her cheeks; it tore his heart to pieces, but he preferred the pieces rather than his heart being torn out completely—pieces could be put back together and mended after all.

He kept moving, his mind seeking out the pathway to his destination through the jumble that his memories were. He blinked and he saw devastation. He blinked again and Seattle's skyline lay before him as peaceful as it had always been. It was strange. It was crazy. He wondered if he were going insane.

In his mind's eye, he saw moonlight, an open field and Jessi laid out underneath him, her grin as coy as ever. He saw Andy, her smile as innocence and shy as was ever possible, staring up at him from a cocoon of sheets. Two memories. Two lifetimes, and even those were beginning to merge so that Jessi had Andy's green eyes, but Andy had Jessi's dark hair, and way, way up in the high-vaulted atmosphere of his ceiling stars were juxtaposed on his fan and the moon shone lazily on a bed covered in grass and wild flowers. He shook his head, trying to clear away the cobwebs and confusion, breathed and kept going.

He gripped the edges of his pants and belt into a wrinkled bunch in one hand and held them up as he marched on, and in his other, heavy metal gleamed in the amber glow of street lights, his hand gripped around it tightly, knuckles turning deathly white. He had a job to do. He had a world to save.

**80808**

Underneath his skin, Cassidy could feel it, like a sixth sense, warning him of something to come. Doom, perhaps? He wasn't sure, but he knew that his latest action against Kyle XY would not go unpunished. A shiver ran up and down his spine, anticipation coiled deep and his stomach, and when he turned on his heel and beheld the very alert and struggling girl that was tied and gagged to a chair behind his desk, his eyes took on a razor edge and his mouth quirked into a very dark smile.

"Doom, indeed," he whispered to himself as he stepped forward and the girl's eyes watched him with an odd mixture of defiance and fear in their blue depths. "Fascinating." His smile became friendly as he drew closer to the girl, but her look never changed, save to become more so frightened and less so defiant. He pulled up a chair and sat down in front of her, lacing his fingers together on the desk top before him.

"I do hope you'll forgive my impropriety," Cassidy began conversationally, as if he were talking to a dear old friend and not the frightened, teenage girl that he'd had kidnapped, "but decorum flies right out the window in the face of one such as me and my little dilemma." He unlaced his fingers and sat back in his chair, relaxed. "You see, Kyle is a very important person to me and my organization, but he doesn't seem to want to cooperate, and we've been more than a little patient with his youthful defiance. However, we can be patient no more. We're on a time table, you see, and we can't have him mucking up all of our plans before they come into fruition. He's more extraordinary than you can ever possibly realize."

Her eyes burned, watery with tears and frustration and she worked the gag in her mouth like she very much so wanted to say something to him, but Cassidy did nothing to alleviate the obstacle and allow her free speech. He was giving her courtesy enough explaining to her the partial truths that Kyle had perhaps not yet explained, but that didn't mean Cassidy wanted to hear her opinions on the matters he was discussing; teenagers—he noticed—had a decided lack of manners when confronted with realities they just did not want to hear.

"Which is why we needed you," Cassidy continued, his tone still relaxed and conversational. "Or rather, why I came up with the idea of using you. You're important to Kyle, and with your help—as unwilling as it maybe—you'll give us the leverage we need to sway Kyle to our way of thinking. He'll join us because he'll never want harm to come to you."

The tears were falling freely now, and Cassidy's face immediately pulled into a mock look of disappointment. He rose, retrieved a tissue from the box of Kleenex that he kept on hand and went to her, attempting to dry her eyes.

"There, there," he said in a tone meant to convey consolation. She flinched from his ministrations as he dried her eyes and tried to pull away. He grabbed her chin and forcibly turned it to him, meeting her eyes. "No need to cry. As I said, if Kyle does as we ask, no harm will come to you at all."

He stood, friendly smile back in place.

"Now, let's go put you somewhere more open, where Kyle will be able to see you." Cassidy went to the door, opened it and signaled to the guards on duty. They came at his beckoning, as silent as the grave despite their hulking weight and towering height.

"Please," he said cordially, stepping aside and motioning to Amanda Bloom, whose eyes widened and renewed her struggles as the two guards approached her and hoisted both her and the chair in the air. Cassidy frowned at her.

"Now that's no way to act," he chastised as the guards carried her out and she glared at him hatefully. "You're helping us do a service. You're helping us complete our plans. You really should be a bit more agreeable."

He followed the guards out into the recreation room of the University science department, the room bare of the chairs, tables, pool table and other odds and ends that the mentally gifted students considered amusements from their typical routines. The two men set her down in the middle of the room and disappeared, silently, waiting in the shadows for Cassidy's summons. The older man stood in front of the trembling teenage girl.

"He'll be here soon," he said, his voice darkening considerably from its earlier, lighter tones. "Do be a good girl, and put on a good show."

He smirked, turned on his heel and disappeared himself as well, going back down to his labs. And waited.

**80808**

Lori stood by anxiously, watched as both Kyle and Jessi hovered around Mark, their hands mere inches from his body, working whatever mojo they had to bring him back from the land of pain and bruises. Her mother stood beside her, arm wrapped tightly around Lori's shoulders and once again, Lori was reminded of how surreal her life had become. Her eyes drifted from Mark to Kyle before settling on Jessi, the other girl's face creased in concentration.

Lori had barely had a minute to set eyes on Jessi or express her surprise at seeing the other girl, alive and well save for her haggard appearance before Nicole and Kyle pushed past her to get into her room and see to the condition of Mark. All she could do was flash Jessi a grateful smile, a quick hug that did nothing to assuage the panic that she had felt for the last few days for her adoptive brother or his experiment-counterpart and a mental promise that when all of this was over, she was going to treat the dark-haired girl to a day full of sisterly bonding and all the fixings that came with bonding with the infamous Lori Trager.

Now, she stood with her mother wishing she could understand even a snippet of Kyle and Jessi's lives, wished she could take part in whatever it was that they were doing to get Mark better, but knew she was only a normal, mortal girl and could not tango with the likes of super humans. Instead, she leaned into her mother, attempted to keep her mouth shut and not ask the barrage of questions that would interrupt Kyle and Jessi's delicate work. She wanted to know how Kyle had found Jessi, she wanted to know the heroic details and what exactly had stopped Jessi from kicking some royal-butt and getting herself back home. She wanted to know if Jessi's disappearance had anything to do with Josh, and whether or not it had something to do with Amanda. But most importantly, she wanted to know if Jessi was okay, if whoever had taken her hadn't hurt her too badly, or hurt her at all.

But she bit her lip in the face of her wants and watched as Mark's eyes fluttered for a second—her heart stopped and her breathing as well—before opening completely and looking from Kyle to Jessi and back again confusion. His eyes went wide suddenly and he sat up quickly, breathing suddenly harsh and ragged.

"Jesus!" he exclaimed, and when Lori looked closer, she could see that his eyes weren't nearly as swollen and his busted lips were healing as if someone had jumped his immune system to hyper drive.

"Mark," she began in a calming tone, going to him and taking his hand in hers. "It's okay."

"But, but," he stuttered, meeting her comforting gaze with one that was fearful. "What's happening? What's going on?"

"We were hoping you could enlighten us," Nicole suggested in a firm voice. Mark's brow creased in momentary confusion.

"Is this a dream?" He asked, meeting Lori's eyes again. She shook her head. His brow creased further and looked from Nicole to Kyle to Jessi and then back again. He breathed. "What do you want to know?"

Kyle leaned down until he was level with the older boy. "Everything."

**80808**

"He's gone."

With everything that he'd been through over the last few years, it was a wonder to Stephen Trager that hearing those two words uttered from Andy's lips was the one thing that nearly stopped his heart cold. He looked at the girl like she was insane and spun in a 360 circle around the hospital room, not wanting to believe her softly uttered words. Josh…gone?

What the hell—?

But she was right, and his eyes weren't deceptive in the slightest. Josh was gone and the only tell-tale sign that his son had even been present in this room was the rumpled sheets that adorned the bed and the lazily swinging tubing that hung from the IV bag. His disbelieving gaze swung slowly to Andy's devastated figure as she sat in a hospital chair across from the bed, staring dejectedly at nothing in particular.

"Where did he go?" Stephen asked, forcing the panicked hysteria from his voice. Andy looked up, but her green eyes were empty.

"I don't know," she replied, blankly. Stephen could feel his hand clenching and unclenching at his sides.

"You don't know?" he repeated, the words tasting strange on his tongue. He dragged in a shaky breath. "Andy…where's my son?"

"He said he was going to stop it," she replied, biting her lip. "He said he was going to stop Kyle."

Stephen's jaw worked, his mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out. Instead, he turned on his heel and started for the door.

"Mr. Trager," Andy called and Stephen stopped, glanced back, his gaze cold like glacial ice. Andy shivered underneath it and withered. "I'm so sorry."

He said nothing and continued out the door.

He had to find his son.

**80808**

The University was juggernaut of stone buildings, turrets upsweeping in a clear gothic design. Kyle would've been awed at what he saw were it daylight and under different circumstances. As it were, his enthusiasm for the University's architecture was dampened considerably in the wake of Amanda's kidnapping and possible d—

But he refused to let himself continue down that train of thought.

Jessi came to stand beside him, dressed in a different pair of clothes, her face set and her gaze intense. His senses were heightened, nearly pushed past their breaking point so that nothing in the world escaped his watchful gaze, his honed sense of smell, taste or the minutiae detections of changes to the air pressure against his skin. In this state, he could more than feel Jessi beside him. Heat radiated from her body and his nose picked up the scent of her—a smell that was perpetually Jessi no matter what the circumstance: that faint trace of her favorite lotion still clinging to her skin and something else, something that he had never quite been able to define. His heart rate picked up, and if he told himself it was only because of the situation, because he was anxious and he was on a mission that determined the fate of the planet, it didn't matter because there was no one else in his head to contradict him.

He dragged his thoughts back to Amanda and back to surveying the quite University grounds for any danger. All was quiet. All was still and Kyle was thankful that at least Mark had been right about this: as he and Jessi moved, no one blocked their path to the science department's building, no obstacle jumped out at them from the darkness. Whether or not Mark's willingness to help would endear him to Lori any longer had yet to been seen.

"D'you think it's a trap?" Jessi asked quietly. Kyle didn't answer at first, only stepped forward, clinging to the shadows, slowing down only to wait for Jessi to catch up, before moving swiftly through the darkness.

"I don't know," he finally replied, and glanced back. Even in the darkness, her eyes glowed an almost preternatural light. His face was grim, his mouth set in a thin, straight line, "But we'd better."

Jessi nodded. That was all the explanation she needed.

It didn't take them long to get to the science department building. It was large, massive and clumsy, a big, black box against the face of the starlit night, whose architecture contrasted greatly the other buildings around it. Kyle wondered fleetingly if that were done on purpose, but he quickly banished the thought and slipped under the cover of a low overhang that jutted out awkwardly from the science building's side and hid in its darkness, a metal door, one of the many entrances into the science building. He looked left then right, checking to see if the coast was clear before stepping back and aiming a well-placed kick at the door. The metal bent in and flew open, but before it could make a cacophonous noise and alert anyone to their presence, Jessi caught it in time, her mind manipulating the air particles around the door, absorbing the energy and force and transferring it elsewhere.

She breathed, and when Kyle glanced over to check on her, she sent him a reassuring nod. He nodded in turn and the two disappeared inside.

**80808**

However, unbeknownst to the two teenagers, a pair of gleaming brown eyes watched amusedly from a face that was pulled into a wicked smirk. Cassidy unlaced his fingers and laid them flat on the desk before him. He stood, straightening his shirt, undoing one more button; it had suddenly gotten very hot in the room. He cleared his throat and stepped away from his chair, tucking it neatly under his desk before pivoting on his heel and exiting the office.

The smirk was still on his face when he signaled for his guards to come forward, and from the shadows they emerged, like ghosts on quiet feet.

"And now, we begin," Cassidy said simply, a flush of emotions rushing through him underneath his skin. Tonight was the night, and when he was through Latnok would be pleased.

Oh, they would most certainly be pleased.

* * *

**AFTERWORD:** Sorry again for the tardiness. I'm working on Chapter 9. It'll be up in a jiffy. Thanks for your patience, guys! Adieu!


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